Anwar-Jokowi bilateral meeting focuses on five agendas

LABUAN BAJO – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim emphasised five agendas during his bilateral meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, which included aspects of official visits, yearly discussions and border talks. 

The prime minister is here for the two-day 42nd Asean Summit in West Manggarai, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, starting today. The summit will be divided into a plenary session and a retreat session. 

Anwar reiterated an invitation to Joko Widodo or popularly known as Jokowi, to officially visit Malaysia in the month of June 2023 and the proposed dates are June 19 to 20 or June 22 to 23. 

Jokowi’s visit would be to reciprocate Anwar’s official visit to Indonesia on January 8 and 9. 

During the meeting in West Manggarai, Anwar also stated Malaysia’s preparedness to support the initiative to organise the 17th Joint Commission Bilateral Cooperation and 14th Annual Consultation which will be hosted by Indonesia to boost bilateral relationships. 

Malaysia is in the process of finalising domestic procedures to enable the Border Crossing Agreement and Border Trade Agreement to be signed during Jokowi’s visit to Malaysia or during the 14th Annual Consultation.  

Both agreements have been finalised and ready to be signed. 

Touching on the topic of maritime borders, Anwar said Malaysia are ready for the Maritime border delimitation treaty for the Strait of Melaka and the maritime border delimitation treaty for Sulawesi Sea, including the issue of “full breadth of the territorial sea” at the 40th Technical Meeting on Maritime Boundaries Delimitation expected to be held this year. 

For the land border delimitation, Malaysia is also ready to sign both the memorandum of understanding (MoU) involving Pulau Sebatik and Sinapad-Sesai in the Sabah-North Kalimantan sector via a 2024 package after works on demarcation and documentation at the sites involved are completed. 

During the 30-minute meeting, Anwar stressed that both countries must adhere to the implementation of the common guidelines to ensure the safety and welfare of fishermen which has always become an issue in the Melaka Straits. 

The matter is contained in the MoU (Respect of the Common Guidelines Concerning Treatment of Fishermen by Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies of Indonesia and Malaysia) signed on January 27, 2012. – Bernama, May 9, 2023