VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly conveyed Canada's support for Indonesia's G20 Presidency in 2022.

This was conveyed by Joly when he met with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Monday (11/4/2022).

"In the meeting, the Canadian Foreign Minister again conveyed Canada's support for the Indonesian presidency," said Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi in her statement after accompanying President Jokowi.

According to Retno, Canada has also expressed its commitment to continue open communication with Indonesia in order to prepare the best way for the G20 to deal with the difficult situation that is currently happening.

Besides Canada, he continued, Indonesia also received similar support from all G20 member countries.

"Therefore, we want that we can realize these supports, we will work together so that once again the G20 can work optimally in the midst of this difficult situation," he said.

Furthermore, Retno added that during the meeting Indonesia and Canada also discussed economic cooperation between the two countries, considering that Canada is one of Indonesia's most important trade and investment partners in the North American region.

The trade value between Canada and Indonesia in 2021 will increase quite significantly by almost 30 percent and the investment value will also increase by almost 4 percent.

President Jokowi, he said, emphasized the importance of the two countries to continue to strengthen cooperative relations in the economic sector, one of which was by intensifying the negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which negotiations had begun since last March.

"The president said it was necessary to speed up the negotiations," he said.

"In addition, it also discussed cooperation on issues of clean energy, infrastructure, and others. There is interest from Canadian investors to continue investing in Indonesia," added Retno.

Previously, the governments of Indonesia and Canada had signed an Action Plan for the Period of 2022-2025. The signing was carried out by the two foreign ministers. (RRI)