ASEAN-Australia Special Summit Produces Melbourne Declaration

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stated that the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit resulted in two documents, namely the 'Melbourne Declaration' and the ASEAN-Australia Leaders Vision Statement.

"The Melbourne Declaration contains the direction of cooperation in the political-security, economic, and socio-cultural sectors going forward," Marsudi noted in a transcript of her press statement regarding the summit, as received on Wednesday.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) attended the summit that took place in Melbourne on March 4-6.

Meanwhile, the ASEAN-Australia Leaders Vision Statement is aimed at facing geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic challenges.

The event was held to commemorate 50 years of ASEAN's partnership with Australia, and the theme of the summit was "A Partnership for the Future."

The summit was divided into two sessions, with the first session being the "Future ASEAN-Australia Cooperation" discussion, while the second one was "The Three ASEAN Cooperation Pillars".

Marsudi explained that last year, Australia had released its economic strategy document for Southeast Asia. The document was created by Australia's Special Envoy for Southeast Asia Nicholas Moore.

"The point of Moore's report is Australia's new approach to increase trade and investment with Southeast Asia," she stated.

Australia views Southeast Asia as a highly potential region, with high economic growth, geographical proximity, and economic complementarity, she explained.

"It is part of Australia's efforts to diversify the economy," she added.

Four major objectives in the report are raising awareness, removing blockages, building capacities, and deepening investment.

The 10 priority sectors for the Australia and Southeast Asia cooperation are agriculture and food, natural resources, clean energy transition, infrastructure, education and skills, tourism, health, digital economy, professional and financial services, and creative industries.

"Australia also launched the ASEAN-Australia Center, which is a form of support for the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)," Marsudi stated.

ANTARA

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