Indonesia-Denmark Improves Pluralism Dialog and Signs Energy Cooperation

President Joko Widodo and First Lady Ibu Iriana received a visit from Queen Margrethe II and Prince Consort of Denmark, at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Thursday (22/10) afternoon.

The visit of Queen Margrethe II who accompanied by Prince Consort of Denmark is the first state visit conducted by the Head of State of Denmark after 65 years of diplomatic relations.

“Since we established diplomatic relations with Denmark, today is Denmark’s first state visit to Indonesia. Today is the one of the biggest since there are as many as 99 businessmen attended the event and it is quite a huge amount,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi said to the reporters, at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Thursday (22/10) afternoon.

Regarding bilateral talks between the two countries in a series of meeting between the Queen of Denmark and President Joko Widodo, Minister Retno said that there are four priorities to be discussed, such as: interfaith cooperation, energy, maritime and education sectors.

As for the interfaith dialog, Minister Retno assesed Indonesia is counted as a country with the largest muslim population and develops as a big democratic country at the same time.

The Minister added that Indonesia is currently adopting tolerance values and pluralism and develops it for other countries in order to give an important comprehension of the value of tolerance, pluralism and others.

The Minister explained that in her state visit to Indonesia, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark will also visit Istiqlal Grand Mosque and Cathedral Church.

Regarding bilateral talks on energy sector, the Minister said that the topic is about renewable and efficient energies. Meanwhile, on maritime sector, they will discuss the development of aquaculture. Bilateral talks on education sector will discuss inter-universities cooperation.

The Minister further said that in the cooperation on energy sector, there is an ongoing project namely wind energy project in Sumba. “We want to develop renewable energy that included in  energy efficiency,” the Minister said.

The cooperation on maritime sector, according to Minister Retno, shall include the infrastructures, connectivities and the development of aquaculture, as well as other efforts. “So, the scope is very wide,” Retno said. Regarding education sector, we already have 14 universities that have cooperation with universities in Denmark.

Furthermore, the Minister added, there are discussions on multilateral issues and on the previous meeting, Minister Retno once again asked Denmark to support Indonesia to become a non-permanent member of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2019.

“Indonesia is considered as an important country. The Foreign Minister of Denmark previously said that Indonesia is a big and democratic country, which has great working force. Indonesia is also a big country since its population reaches 250 million people. Thus, from all of those things, Denmark considered Indonesia as an important country  and the largest country in ASEAN,” Retno said. (FID/UN/RAH/ES) (RAS/MMB/YM/Naster)