EU Ambassador to visit Brunei, launch Partnership Facility

His Excellency Mr Vincent Piket, Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Indonesia and Ambassador-Designate to Brunei Darussalam, will pay a working visit to Bandar Seri Begawan from 1-3 March 2023. Ambassador-Designate Piket will meet with government officials, business leaders, academics, and civil society organisations. During his introductory visit to the sultanate, Mr Piket will also attend events organised through a new EU project to promote bilateral partnership and cooperation: the EU-Brunei Darussalam Partnership Facility.

The EU-Brunei Darussalam Partnership Facility aims to promote two-way exchanges and know-how transfer between Bruneian and EU stakeholders from government, private sector and civil society. The Facility will cover policy areas of shared interest, like economic cooperation, higher education, research, environment, climate and sustainable growth.

On 1 March, Ambassador-Designate Piket will open a Policy Outreach and Exchange Seminar on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. “Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is a shared task. I hope this seminar will produce some hands-on ideas for cooperation between Brunei and the EU in this area,” said Ambassador-Designate Piket. He will be joined at the seminar by HE Mr Bernard Regnauld-Fabre, Ambassador of France to Brunei Darussalam, and HE Ms Gerda Winkler, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Brunei Darussalam.

The event will feature keynote speeches from Ambassador-Designate Piket and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Hajah Nor Ashikin binti Haji Johari. There will also be two panel discussions with speakers from Brunei, Indonesia, and the EU Delegation in Jakarta, exploring topics from gender mainstreaming in policy-making to achieving equal participation across different sectors of the economy.

On 2 March, Ambassador-Designate Piket will deliver a lecture on EU foreign policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, followed by a panel discussion with the German and French Ambassadors on the same topic.