On Wednesday, Indonesian and Norway foreign ministers signed a MoU on the Establishment of Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation that facilitates intensification of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in facing regional and global challenges.
“We are convinced that we will have stronger bilateral partnership in various arrays that comprised of politics, economy, trade, investment and people-to-people relations,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told a joint press conference in his office with his visiting Norwegian counterpart Espen Barth Eide.
The signing of the MoU was conducted by the two ministers on the sidelines of their meeting in Natalegawa’s office. In the meeting the two ministers reaffirmed the two nations’ joint commitment in further developing bilateral relations between the two countries as mandated by “Joint Declaration on Cooperation towards a Dynamic Partnership in the 21st Century” document signed in Jakarta on November 8, 2010.
It facilitates Indonesia and Norway partnership in improving their relations in democracy, human rights, security, trade and investment, environment, energy, fishery, infrastructure and education.
The two ministers also discussed environment issue, particularly on Indonesian efforts in reducing CO2-emission through Indonesia-initiated REDD Plus scheme that is partly funded by Norway.
“Indonesia is a special partner to Norway. We have a very close relation. Indonesia and Norway has been building improving commitments and concrete relations in human rights, democracy and law enforcement,” the Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in the event.
Two-way trade between Indonesia and Norway stood at 321.88 million U.S. dollars in 2012. In the first three months of this year, the bilateral trade was recorded at 84.58 million U.S. dollars, or 7.35 percent higher than 78.79 U.S. dollars in the same period last year.
Norway investment to Indonesia stood at 7.8 million U.S. dollars last year, making its total investment from 2010 to 2012 stood at 14.40 million U.S. dollars.
