President Jokowi to Have Bilateral Talks with ASEAN Leaders during US Visit

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs being interviewed after welcoming President Jokowi in California, the US

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo on Monday (15/2) began his working visit to the United States with the main agenda being attending the US–ASEAN Summit on 15-16 February in Sunnylands, California, the United States.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi said that before the opening of the Summit on Monday (15/2) local time, President Jokowi is slated to have bilateral talks with several ASEAN leaders.

”The first bilateral talk is with the President of Laos and the second one is with Prime Minister of Vietnam,” the Minister said.

“However, bear in mind that Laos now assumes the chairmanship of ASEAN so I suppose the discussion between President Jokowi with the President of Laos will probably discuss the matter. I’ve also recently visited Laos and at the ministerial levels, we’ve also had discussion on ASEAN Chairmanship,” the Minister said.

In the meantime, Retno added, the Vietnamese Prime Minister has on several occasions invited President Jokowi to visit Vietnam.

“I suppose the Prime Minister will reiterate the invitation. Regarding other issues, we will see how what the two leaders will talk about,” Retno said.

For the US-ASEAN Summit, the event is scheduled to begin at 15.30 pm local time, with the topic of the first retreat is Promoting Innovative Entrepreneur ASEAN Economic Community. Issues to be discussed in the first retreat are, among others, micro, small, and medium enterprises (UMKM), information technology, digital economy, and others.

Retno added that at the last part of retreat I, US President Barrack Obama will invite 3 CEOs to join world leaders and have discussion with them.

“The three CEOs are from IBM, Microsoft, and Sisco. So there will be discussion between leaders and the three CEOs,” the Minister said.

More importantly, Retno said that at the Summit, Indonesia will raise the issue of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) because Indonesia’s economy significantly depends on them and the issue of efforts to close down gap development.

“The President has on many occasions said that the development gap must be closed because if we talk about development, development that has to give benefits for all of us,” Retno said.

Retno further said that after the first retreat finished, a working dinner hosted by President Obama will be held.

Retno further said that at the working dinner, President Obama will put emphasis on the interaction from the discussions among participants. The working dinner will adopt the theme ‘Regional Strategic Outlook’ and it will be held until around 9 pm with the composition leaders +1.

For the record, during the working dinner, President Jokowi will be accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs, while at retreat I, President Jokowi will be accompanied by four delegates, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Trade, Presidential Chief of Staff and Chief of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to ASEAN. (SLN/UN/EN) (EP/YM/Naster)