Vietnam and Indonesia agree to strengthen their strategic ties
On Monday, March 10, the leaders of Indonesia and Vietnam met in Jakarta to celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations. They agreed to strengthen their relationship even further by becoming a complete strategic partnership.
To Lam, the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, met with President Prabowo Subianto in the capital of Indonesia to talk about ways to work together better on defense and the economy.
“At our meeting, we all agreed that we wanted to improve our relationships and work together more.” After our meeting, Prabowo told a news conference, “We want to turn our relationship into a full strategic partnership.”
“We truly want to strengthen and cooperate in almost all fields.”
He said that they decided to work together more on defense and security, the digital economy, the green economy, fisheries, and high-tech industries.
Soon, Prabowo said, he would go to Vietnam to sign “an implementing agreement on cooperation in our economic zone.” He hoped that the Indonesian government would approve the deal next month.
As president-elect, Prabowo went to Vietnam in September of last year to show that he would be more involved in world events than his predecessor, Joko Widodo, who focused on internal issues. This was a change in foreign policy from Widodo’s.
Vietnam and Indonesia both claim parts of the disputed South China Sea, and boats from both countries have sometimes fought.
In 2019, Jakarta called Vietnam’s representative because it said the Vietnamese coastguard had hit one of its boats to stop them from stopping a boat that was fishing illegally.
Indonesia, which is the largest island country in the world, wants to stop foreign boats from fishing illegally in its waters because it says it costs its economy billions of dollars every year.
Jakarta calls the area in the very southern part of the South China Sea its exclusive economic zone. To show that it controls the area, it changed its name to the North Natuna Sea.