Discourse: China offers RI extensive bilateral, regional and global cooperation

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 04/27/2011 11:37 PM A | A | A | - Klipping the Jakarta Post

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will arrive in Jakarta on Thursday on a three-day official visit to Southeast Asia’s largest economy. In his first visit as Chinese premier, Wen will hold talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to lay out the two countries’ future relations. Before his departure from Beijing, the premier gave three Indonesian journalists, including The Jakarta Post’s Abdul Khalik, a rare interview. Below is the first part of the interview:

Question: What is your impression of Indonesia?

Answer: Indonesia is a country with vast and extensive territory with rich natural resources and a large population. It’s a country with a long coastline and a lot of islands, known as the emerald of the equator. Exchanges between the two countries have a long history and the relations between the two countries have enjoyed rapid development in recent years.

I came to know a country by the name of Indonesia when I was a child, and even when I was very young I could hum the tune of some famous Indonesian folk songs, including Ayo Mama and Rasa Sayange.

So, I have a very fond impression about Indonesia.

What is your take on the mutual understanding between the two countries?

When it comes to exchanges between the two countries, we can recall that in the 4th century, an eminent monk by the name of Fa Hien had already visited Indonesia, and in the 8th century, another famous monk visited Indonesia, and it was during this time that a lot number of Chinese started visiting and settling in Indonesia.

The most famous historical episode of exchanges between the two countries was the western sea voyage of famous Muslim navigator Admiral Cheng He in the early 15th century. He helped establish a number of mosques in Indonesia, and many remain very well preserved until now.

In modern times, the most memorable episode of our exchanges was the Asia-Africa conference in Bandung when then Indonesian president Sukarno and Chinese premier Chou En-lai made tremendous efforts to bring about a successful conference, and together they worked to initiate the 10 important principles for peaceful co-existence of Asian and African countries.

In order to gain present knowledge and understanding about our important historical event, I want to pay a special trip to the relevant venues in Bandung.

Can you comment on current China-Indonesia relations, and how the two countries enhance their cooperation?

I believe long-term economic plans of the two countries present tremendous opportunities for cooperation between our two countries, and what we need now is to seize the opportunities and work toge ther to translate that into concrete results.

To do this I believe it’s important that we take the following steps in six areas. First, we should enhance high-level exchanges, establish a mechanism for regular mutual visits at the leadership level and increase our mutual political trust.

Second, we need to carry out closer economic cooperation and trade. We can enhance our cooperation in energy, infrastructure development and some important sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries.

Third, we need to step up maritime cooperation that includes maritime security, navy-to-navy exchanges, antiterrorism joint exercises and military drills, development of marine resources and research development of marine science and technology. We should also enhance our cooperation in disaster preparedness for tsunamis and earthquakes.

Fourth, we need to enhance culture and people-to-people contact, we need to enhance our exchanges in science, technology, culture and education.

Speaking of education, I believe both educational and cultural exchanges represent the future of our friendship and form the foundation of our cooperation. We need to work together for early conclusion of agreement on mutual recognition of each others’ degrees and diplomas of higher education.

We should also further increase the exchanges between students. They have a lot of meaning for both countries.

Fifth, we need to enhance cooperation in ASEAN. Indonesia now holds the rotating presidency of ASEAN and we hope Indonesia will continue to play an active and constructive role in promoting ASEAN-China cooperation.

Sixth, we should step up cooperation on major international and regional issues. Indonesia is a member of the Group of 20. It is now a big and major emerging market economy.

The country now enjoys increasingly extensive influence not only in Asia but also in the world. We hope that the two countries will step up cooperation in international affairs and make joint contribution to promote world peace, prosperity and progress.