President Jokowi Calls King Salman of Saudi Arabia to Bid Farewell

President Jokowi calls King Salman to bid a farewell. (Photo: courtesy)

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo called King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday (12/3) at around 08:30 am Western Indonesian Time or 09:30 am Central Indonesian time. “In a telephone conversation, President Jokowi expressed his gratitude to the King Salman and his delegation for the visit to Indonesia,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi was quoted as saying by Head of the Press, Media, and Information of the Presidential Secretariat Bey Machmudin through a press release Sunday (12/3) afternoon.

On that occasion, Foreign Minister Retno continued, President Jokowi also said that the Indonesian Government is planning to immediately assign the relevant ministers to materialize the results of the visit of King Salman to Indonesia.

King Salman expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome given by the Government and people of Indonesia, and he and his entourage felt the excitement during his stay in Indonesia. “The King hopes that the exchanges of visit both by the government officials and the private sector could be intensified,” Retno said, who took time to visit King Salman in St. Regis Hotel, Nusa Dua, Bali.

According to Retno, King Salman repeated his message that he delivered to the President on the importance of intensifying mutual cooperation, mainly exchanges of visit both by the government and private sectors in order to follow up the results of the visit of King Salman to Indonesia. “According to King Salman, as countries with an open economy, it will be easier for the two countries to boost economic cooperation,” Retno said.

As reported earlier, King Salman was in Indonesia on 1 – 12 March, 2017. After paying a state visit on 1 – 3 March 2017 in Bogor and Jakarta, King Salman left for a vacation in Bali on 4- 12 March 2017. “On this day, Sunday, 12 March 2017 at 11:13 am Central Indonesian Time, the plane carrying King Salman and his entourage left Bali for Japan via the Ngurah Rai International Airport Bali,” Retno said.

Accompanying King Salman in his departure to Japan were Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, Bali Governor I Made Mangku Pastika, and Director General for Protocol and Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andri Hadi. (UN/BPMI Setpres/ES) (MUR/YM/Naster).