Jokowi Meets Jose Ramos-Horta; Plans Opening Ship Route between Kupang, Dili, Darwin

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo today received a state visit from East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta at the Bogor Palace, on July 19. After the bilateral meeting, Jokowi announced that the two leaders reached several agreements.

"We agreed to strengthen land and sea connectivity," Jokowi said.

For land connectivity, Jokowi hopes that a bus route between East Nusa Tenggara's Kupang city and Dili, East Timor can be launched soon. For sea, Jokowi stressed on the importance of opening a shipping route from Kupang to Dili and Darwin (Australia).

The president did not elaborate on the ship route plan as no deal has been made yet.

Indonesia and East Timor have approved cooperation in four fields: agriculture, commercial bus cross-border movement, standardization, and meteorology, as well as technical cooperation in trade.

Meanwhile, the plan to open the Kupang-Dili bus route has kicked off. In mid-2021, Perum Darmi conducted a survey on the development of the Kupang-Dili Cross Border Transport route and the development of a domestic route in Kupang.

In August 2021, East Nusa Tenggara Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat expressed his desire for the availability of direct flights between Kupang and Darwin.

Fajar Pebrianto

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