The commitment to conclude a PCA was one of the results of the two parties` 10th Bilateral Consultative Forum/Senior Officials Meeting (SOM X) held in Bogor on November 10-11, 2011, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a press release here on Saturday.
Both sides look forward to the ratification of the PCA by all 29 parties (Indonesia, 27 EU member atates, and the European Parliament) and the aubsequent establishment of a new PCA Joint Committee.
The SOM X was co-chaired by Retno L.P. Marsudi, Director General for America and European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Viorel Budura, Managing Director for Asia, European External Action Service.
Both sides applauded the rapid advance in Indonesia-European Union (EU) bilateral commercial and political relations, in the midst of the current challenging global situation.
The recent meeting of President Yudhoyono with President Barroso and Van Rompuy at the G20 Summit in Cannes had demonstrated the high-level commitment to relations and cemented co-operation, inter alia, on climate change, and counter-terrorism. Both sides expressed their commitment to maintain the efforts to develop the bilateral trade partnership, including the continuation of the dialogue to follow-up the work of the Vision Group on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
SOM X also praised achievements in the transportation sector, with the signing of Indonesia-EU Horizontal Agreement (HAA) on 29 June 2011. The HAA represents an important step towards strengthening civil aviation relations and developing future cooperation in this field between Indonesia-EU.
Furthermore, SOM X commended the initialing of Indonesia-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) ?? Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA).
This Agreement will make a substantial contribution to addressing the problem of illegal logging and will contribute to the promotion of legally harvested and sustainable timber in Indonesia, while helping to improve the attractiveness of Indonesia timber products in the EU market.
On development cooperation, both sides received a report of the joint working group covering development issues which reviewed the implementation of ongoing programmes and preparation of new activities.
As agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2010, co-operation focuses on education, trade co-operation, governance and climate change.
Both sides further welcomed the signing of the financing agreement to launch EU-Indonesia Trade Cooperation Facility (TCF) on 4 November 2011, which will provide innovative tailor-made capacity building support to Indonesian government agencies involved in the improvement of the Indonesian trade and investment climate.
SOM X looked forward to the early launching of programmes of education and climate change, the release said. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
