President Prabowo’s Working Visit Successfully Produces Strategic Agreements with Singapore
JAKARTA – The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, successfully carried out his first state visit to Singapore. During this visit, President Prabowo was officially welcomed by Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in a state ceremony at Parliament House, reflecting the close diplomatic relations between the two countries.
President Prabowo’s visit to the Lion City was also the first by a foreign head of state since the inauguration of Singapore’s new cabinet under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During the series of visits, President Prabowo also attended an important Leaders’ Retreat meeting with PM Wong which resulted in a number of concrete achievements and emphasized the new direction of the Indonesia-Singapore bilateral strategic partnership.
“In my opinion, this Leaders’ Retreat was very productive and very successful. We held a very substantive one-on-one meeting, and we produced 19 agreements in many sectors of cooperation,” said President Prabowo.
Several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed and exchanged in the presence of President Prabowo and PM Wong, including the Joint Report to Leaders of the six bilateral economic cooperation groups (6WG), MoU on food security and agricultural technology cooperation, cooperation on sustainable industrial area development, cross-border electricity trade, and carbon capture and storage cooperation. The Renewable Energy Interconnectors project was also inaugurated as part of the continuation of the green energy cooperation between the two countries.
“The two countries have a long-standing friendship that has led to collaboration in various sectors, such as defense, green economy, and connectivity,” said the official statement from the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said that cooperation through the 6WG includes the Batam, Bintan, Karimun (BBK) sector, investment, employment, transportation, agribusiness, and tourism, which is a form of consistency between the two countries in maintaining the sustainability of regional development and economic integration.
“The Joint Report to Leaders of the Six Bilateral Working Group (JRTL) is a summary of the achievements and important plans for economic cooperation between Indonesia and Singapore. This is a manifestation of our commitment to continue strengthening regional cooperation, including with ASEAN,” said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.
Not only the economic sector, the agreement also extends to the fields of law, education, defense, and culture. Several other important MoUs include mutual recognition of halal certification, extradition cooperation, renewal of defense cooperation, youth exchanges, development of young farmers, and the launch of a new flight route from Singapore to Kertajati and Padang Airports by Scoot airlines.
(*/rls)
