Sambutan Presiden Republik Indonesia pada Pertemuan Bilateral dengan Presiden Dewan Eropa di Gedung Europa, Brussel, Belgia Minggu, 13 Juli 2025

Thank you very much for receiving us today. Again, I apologize, you are receiving me on a Sunday. So, this I think, it is very out of the ordinary. I really very appreciate the sacrifice that you made and this, I think shows, the importance of you attach to our relationship. Once again, I would like to thank you.

Yes, today for me is a very historic day, after 10 years of negotiations, sometimes very tough. Today, we achieved a breakthrough. We have an agreement for the Indonesian European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which basically is a free trade agreement. And apparently, we are very happy that most of, all, all the items we have reached agreement. So, there is no outstanding issues, I think all the commodities have been discussed, agreed upon, and basically, we would like to see increase in the European participation in our economy, and we are also, also ready to enter the European Union economy also, I think we have a symbiotic relationship. You have the science, the technology, the finance, the years of experience in managerial and economic, and we have critical resources, minerals (resources), etc, also agriculture commodities which I think, will be mutually beneficial if we have this strategic agreement alignment.

We consider Europe to be very important, and we would like to see a strong Europe play an important role in maintaining peace and stability in the world. The world is now, in reality, moving towards a multipolar world and I think Europe once again, must rise to the position of global player, global leader. We are very enthusiastic, for instance, Europe is a top destination for Indonesian tourists—8 millions Indonesian visit European cities every year. We also are sending 3,394 students every year funded by our government to study in Europe. And up to now, we have funded 11,784 students, and this is outside those students who come to Europe to study in Europe on their own. So, these are just [the number of students with] government sponsored and we would like to see more Indonesian students studying in Europe. And we also open, Indonesia in the last two years, we have opened a lot of sectors for foreign participation.

Now we open the health sector—any foreign hospitals or medical institutions can open their subsidiaries or their affiliated institutions in Indonesia. We allow now foreign hospitals to open in Indonesia. We also open now, foreign campuses, university campuses are also welcomed in Indonesia now. I think this is very important that the cultural educational interaction between our two, between Europe and Indonesia, I think it’s very, very important. As I said in Indonesia, basically our political system, our legal system is very much influenced by Europe. A lot of our leaders are educated here in the west, economically also. So, we have common interests I think, and we have common problems that we should work together to overcome. For instance, we are both committed to peace because we understand that without peace, there can be no prosperity, and without prosperity, there can never be stability. So, this is the cycle that we have to maintain.

I’m very happy today with the breakthrough in our agreements. Once again, we look forward to better, closer cooperation. 

Thank you very much.