VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Tanzania has officially opened its embassy in Indonesia as part of its continued efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Speaking at the embassy’s inauguration in Jakarta on Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi emphasized Indonesia’s commitment to building a stronger relationship with the East African country.

"... including preparations for high-level exchange visits, both to your capital as well as to my capital," she said.

Tanzania inaugurated its embassy in Jakarta on Thursday, marking a historic moment in diplomatic relations between the two nations. Indonesia and Tanzania have completed 59 years of diplomatic ties.

Tanzanian Ambassador to Indonesia Macocha Tembele said that his government decided to open an embassy in Jakarta on account of the deepening relations between the countries.

Before this, all matters related to Tanzania in Indonesia were taken up by the Tanzanian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"Now, we have decided to move here because we understand that the relations between Indonesia and Tanzania are deepening, and we need a very close monitoring of these relations," Tembele said.

He added that the embassy will focus on ways to utilize the potential for deepening relations between Tanzania and Indonesia, which were established in 1964.

He said that there are several areas of cooperation that need to be focused on, such as cooperation in trade, agriculture, and investment.

"We are planning to cooperate with Indonesia in terms of enhancing investment in the hospitality industry," he said. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia's Trade Ministry is exploring opportunities for trade cooperation with a number of countries and regions to expand the export market for domestic products, the ministry’s Director General of International Trade Negotiations Djatmiko Bris Witjaksonon said.

So far, 14 exploration efforts have been made targeting several countries and regions, he informed here on Thursday.

The countries and regions comprise the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which has five members: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa.

They also include the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

They further include the East African Community (EAC), which comprises Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Trade cooperation has also been explored with Djibouti, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Ukraine, India, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

GCC comprises the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait.

The trade exploration has been made with these countries because they have the potential to improve the performance of Indonesian exports in the future.

"There is a large potential. There is a very high interest in our products," he said.

The process of completing the trade cooperation with the countries and regions will require a long time. However, he expects that some forms of the cooperation can be agreed upon within the next five to 10 years.

This cooperation will encompass a number of trade cooperation concepts, such as free trade agreement (FTA), preferential trade agreement (PTA), and comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA).

For now, the Indonesian government is also conducting trade cooperation negotiations with 11 countries and regions. These include Bangladesh, Japan, and the European Union (EU).

They further include Canada, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Pakistan (Trade in Goods Agreement (TIGA), and Mercosur, which consists of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. (antaranews)

The Group of Seven countries affirmed their unity and stressed the need for close coordination in dealing with China, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with G7 representatives in London.

"The G7 noted the importance of close coordination on the PRC (People's Republic of China) and reaffirmed that the G7 is more united than ever," the State Department said in a statement.

Blinken met representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union on the sidelines of a conference in London and briefed them on his meetings with leaders in China on a recent trip, the State Department said.

Blinken's G7 meeting came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a "dictator." China said that Biden's remarks, made at a fundraiser, were absurd and a provocation.

Blinken recently completed a visit to China aimed at stabilizing relations between the U.S. and China that Beijing says are at their lowest point since formal ties were established in 1979.

Blinken met Xi during his China trip, and they both agreed on Monday to stabilize the U.S.-China rivalry so it did not veer into conflict. While the visit did not yield breakthroughs, both sides agreed to continue diplomatic engagement with more visits by U.S. officials in the coming weeks and months.

Blinken, in his meeting with the G7, also discussed support for Ukraine amid Russia's invasion, according to the State Department. He met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday and discussed the need for Ukraine to continue to implement reforms to establish an environment for investment, the State Department added. (Reuters)

A Chinese aircraft carrier group led by the vessel Shandong sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry said, amid heightened military tension over the island Beijing claims as its own territory.

The ministry said the Shandong, commissioned in 2019, had sailed in a southerly direction through the western part of the strait, and it had dispatched "appropriate forces" to monitor the Chinese activities.

The aircraft carrier participated in Chinese military drills around Taiwan in April, operating in the western Pacific. In March last year, it sailed through the Taiwan Strait, just hours before the leaders of China and the U.S. were due to talk.

China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, has stepped up military activities near the democratically governed island to force it to accept Chinese sovereignty.

Taiwan strongly disputes Beijing's sovereignty claims and vows to defend itself if attacked. (Reuters)