VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia and India agreed to strengthen strategic partnerships across various key areas, including defense, security, economy and maritime at the 5th Indonesia-India joint commission meeting in Jakarta on Friday (05/01). Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said in a joint press statement that they discussed ways to broaden the partnerships, including by expediting finalization of countries’ defense cooperation agreements. She said Indonesia and India also agreed to strengthen maritime cooperation to fight piracy and illegal fishing. The two countries will also work together to counter terrorism through deradicalization programs and by developing a legal framework to combat transnational organized crimes, including cyber attacks. India’s foreign affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the two countries is "in a unique position to develop synergetic relationship to harness potentials [in the] Indo-Pacific region." He also  said  both countries   are united in opposing "any selective approaches in dealing with terrorism, and urged countries to stop sponsoring terrorism and refrain from encouraging the use of their respective territories to establish 'terrorist safe havens.'" Indonesia and India also agreed to speed up negotiations on exclusive economic zones and intensify cooperation to promote trade facilitations and to explore other trade potentials through greater market access. (JG)

Indonesia's Public Works and Housing Ministry intends to complete a 929.7-kilometer stretch of a toll road connecting Java's westernmost city of Merak to Surabaya, the capital of East Java, by the end of this year, according to a statement released recently. The Merak-Surabaya toll road will be part of the TransJava toll road which will connect Merak to Java's easternmost city of Banyuwangi. The TransJava toll road, when completed, will stretch for 1,167 kilometers from West to East Java. Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said in the statement that they want the Merak-Surabaya toll road to be at least partly ready by June this year so it can help with the Idul Fitri exodus. He said that the ministry expects all land acquisition for the project to be completed by January, so they can move on to construction straight away. So far, a total of 561 kilometers of the TransJava toll road has been completed and are already in use. Construction is still going on in the remaining parts, totaling 606 kilometers. At some sections of the toll road, construction has been halted by land acquisition problem. Nevertheless, minister Basuki said the problems with clearing land for the toll road is now "nearly 100 percent solved." The Indonesian government expects the TransJava toll to improve access to remote cities on the island and reduce logistic costs. (JG)