Jokowi Calls for Maritime Cooperation at East Asia Summit

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo viewed that cooperation in the maritime sector would be the new priority for the East Asia Summit.

“Cooperation in the maritime sector is very strategic because it’s in line with Indonesia’s initiative to be the World Maritime Axis and has direct impact on stability, security and prosperity of the region,” Jokowi said in a press release received by Tempo on Sunday, November 22, 2015.

Jokowi also expressed his appreciation to all East Asia Summit participants for supporting Indonesia’s initiative related to the EAS Statement on Enchancing Regional Maritime Cooperation ratified in the summit today.

“The EAS Statement is a political declaration showing EAS participants’ commitment to improve dialogue and cooperation in the maritime sector,” Jokowi added.

Jokowi explained that the document ratification would need a concrete follow up. Therefore, Jokowi called for a sustainable maritime economic development, connectivity, cooperation between research institutes, and cross-border challenge resolution.

Jokowi also called on summit participants to fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) Fishing, extremism and radicalism, as well as terrorism.

As a country with the largest Muslim population and the third democracy country in the world, Islam, democracy and pluralism could coexist in Indonesia, Jokowi added.

In the East Asia Summit, Indonesia’s vision was to strengthen ties to address illegal migration/irregular movement of persons and mitigate disaster, as well as contagious disease.

Attending the East Asia Summit were Malaysian PM Najib Abdul Razak, US President Obama, Korean President Park Geun-hye, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Chinese PM Li Keqiang, Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, New Zealand PM John Key, Indian PM Narendra Modi, and ASEAN head of states.

ALI HIDAYAT