Opening remarks by Federica Mogherini at the 1st EU-Indonesia Joint Committee

Check against delivery! It is a great pleasure for me, and an honour, to welcome you, [Foreign Minister of Indonesia] Retno [Marsudi] to Brussels, for this very important step in our bilateral relations. It is really important, this 1st meeting of the Joint Committee that we inaugurate formally this evening and that will continue the entire day tomorrow with our teams working on the different files of our very intense bilateral relationship. And I would like to thank you warmly and especially for having travelled all the way from Jakarta to Brussels, especially for this. This also offers to us a very good opportunity to exchange bilaterally as we just did. It is a pleasure for me to meet with you so often. In the last months relations between the European Union and Indonesia have really grown in an impressive manner. Last April, in Jakarta, we jointly launched the ministerial strategic dialogue. A few days later we welcomed the President [Joko Widodo] here in Brussels for the first ever visit of an Indonesian President to the European Union institutions. And we see Indonesia as an essential partner not only for bilateral issues, but also for building a more cooperative global and regional order. We see things in similar ways. We see cooperation as the key manner to develop relations with our neighbours and with the rest of the world. You are one of the largest democracies in the world, you are a country of a quarter of a billion inhabitans, the largest country in the world with a majority of Muslim citizens and with an incredibly diverse society that is a model for the rest of the world, and this is also a source of inspiration for us in Europe. We share the same motto, “unity in diversity”, and we indeed have a lot that we can learn from each other, also in the ways that our societies can keep this diversity and keep this unity. Over the last two years we met frequently. We met in Europe, we met in Indonesia, we met in Asia, in regional summits, we met in New York in the UN framework. We also share, I believe, a similar understanding of the global order based on multilateralism and on rules. And we try to build bridges inside our societies and across our regions and the world. I believe that this new step in our relations that makes us enter really into a new phase in our bilateral relations is going to be very important, not only for Europeans and Indonesians but also for the rest of the world. We just discussed our common approach, our common visions of the situations in the Middle East, or in Asia, or in parts of our region and it is always a pleasure to exchange with you. Of course, our work has not stopped in these last months or in these last years. The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement was signed in 2009 in Jakarta – and I know it was you, Retno, working on that as Director General in charge of Europe. You showed vision already at that time and I believe this is also a personal achievement for you that is really impressive. With this Joint Committee today we will move into a different phase, a new phase. The Committee today will endorse a number of new formats for our dialogue, on many different issues. On trade, we have launched negotiations of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement after the President’s visit and we discussed how important it is to focus on our trade relations, especially in the current political environment in the world. On human rights, we held our sixth dialogue last June. On maritime issues, a High Level Dialogue is already in place; this is also an essential issue for both of us. We are maritime powers, we are both sharing an interest in keeping our seas safe for trade and for travel, and we all understand that in a globalised world, the safety of sea routes is a global common and it can only be preserved through global cooperation. We are together in this as well. And on security, also, we launched a dialogue earlier this year in May, which can be really crucial to address common challenges such as terrorism or the radicalisation of our youth. And this dialogue can also reinforce our cooperation with ASEAN as the European Union which is a key priority for us.  So, immediately after this launching of our Joint Committee, we will also issue the first licenses for timber products under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement. We will be joined by Commissioner [for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries] [Karmenu] Vella for that and again I will leave that for later. I would just like to add one word. When I visited you in Jakarta, Retno, I remember very well I was impressed with the model of society you have and also with the model of living together of the different communities in your country. And I came back to Brussels giving some homework to my team and looking at the possibility of launching a project to set up an exchange programme for religious scholars and leaders. And I am glad to announce that this will be done as of next year, dealing with internal diversity of our societies: one of the great challenges we have and we can definitely learn from each other in this field. So this will be a new chapter also in our very dense bilateral agenda. So with this, let me thank you once again, Retno, you and your entire delegation for joining us on this day, for all the work you have done personally and also that we have done with our teams to get to this stage, which is a starting point for our even more intense cooperation. Thank you very much.