The president made the remarks while addressing the plenary session of the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit held in Radisson Blu Resort & Congress Centre, Sochi, Russia, on Friday, member of the presidential communication team Ari Dwipayana said.
The ASEAN-Russia Partnership is now 20 years old.
Touching on global peace, President Jokowi underlined that a lot of conflicts in the world have led to humanitarian crises.
"Its time for all the countries in the world to prevent and resolve the conflicts," he pointed out.
In this regard, Indonesia underscored the importance of building a regional architecture that can maintain regional peace and stability, he added.
The president informed that Indonesia has conveyed the initiative to the East Asian Summit, and noted that Russia shares Indonesias view.
Therefore, he stated, Indonesia and other ASEAN member states can collaborate with Russia to create such an architecture that underlines the centrality of the ASEAN leadership.
"This will be an arrangement that will emphasize the principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness, respect the sovereignty and integrity of other countries, prioritize dialogue to resolve problems and respect the international law," he explained.
To promote peoples welfare, the president underscored the need to focus ASEAN-Russian Partnership on the development of physical connectivity, energy cooperation in support of energy security, and cooperation among small and medium businesses to mutually strengthen competitiveness in the global market.
In addition, he also stressed the importance of people-to-people contacts.
The cooperation that both sides need to encourage includes efforts in the education sector covering scholarships, student/youth exchange programs covering cooperation between ASEAN Center at MGIMO University in Moscow and various ASEAN Study Centers at various universities in ASEAN member states, and tourism covering linguistic training and expertise for tour guide operators.
The president further conveyed Indonesias views on the Syrian conflict which, he made it clear, must be stopped because it has already claimed many lives.
"Extremism has been mounting because of protracted conflict, which has led to massive migration and humanitarian crisis," he reiterated.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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