TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto confirmed that US Vice President Mike Pence has planned to visit Indonesia. However, Wiranto could not yet confirm the exact date of the visit.
He discussed the plan during a meeting with US Ambassador to Indonesia Joseph R. Donovan at Wiranto’s office.
“We weren’t discussing the date, but it was about what topics to be discussed between [Pence] and President Joko Widodo,” Wiranto said at his office in Jakarta on Monday, March 13, 2017.
The minister added that topics covered in the meeting with Donovan centered on diplomatic relationships.
“I think the US Ambassador agreed to maintain the relationship despite a new [US] administration,” Wiranto said.
He asserted that Indonesia-US diplomatic relationship started in 1949, four years after Indonesia gained its independence.
“We have a long history of diplomatic relationship with the US, and it has been closer over the last ten years,” Wiranto explained.
As reported by Reuters on March 13, 2017, Pence will also visit a number of countries in East Asia.
YOHANES PASKALIS | REUTERS
