VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Trade negotiations between Indonesia and India are heading in new directions, with a focus on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), a bilateral free trade arrangement India has already successfully entered with South Korea. It was stated by the Ambassador of India to Indonesia, Pradeep Kumar Rawat, in a special interview with Voice of Indonesia in Jakarta, Friday (24/01). The interview was conducted in conjunction with the 71st Republic Day of India which falls on January 26.

“Now that RCEP is more or less done, there are opportunities for us – for India and Indonesia – to go back and take a look at CEPA, to see that in our bilateral trading negotiations what is working best for our economies and what is not. And try and work out a trading arrangement which helps our economies to grow, to diversify and also to become more competitive globally,” said Ambassador Pradeep Kumar Rawat.

Ambassador Pradeep Kumar Rawat said India’s pharmaceutical and engineering services were a “strong” export, which Indonesia may be interested in the future, but that both countries could benefit from bilateral trading. The Ambassador hoped India and Indonesia could share a more “balanced and mature” relationship in future trade partnerships.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, known as RCEP, is a free trade deal between the member states of ASEAN and their five partner countries, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, and India. RCEP was signed in 2017, but India opted out of the agreement only two years later, in November 2019. (VOI/LAURA GREEN/AHM)