"So far, there are 13 heads of state (that have confirmed) to attend, and we expect more confirmations," the ministry's director general of public information and communication, Usman Kansong, said here on Wednesday.
At a media briefing on the AIS Summit and the World Water Forum (WWF), he informed that Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Vanuatu are among the countries that have confirmed their attendance at the 1st AIS Summit.
According to Kansong, the AIS Summit, which is a cooperation forum between 51 island and archipelagic countries, will emphasize on devising concrete solutions to four ocean problems, namely climate change mitigation, blue economy, plastic waste handling in the oceans, and maritime governance.
Indonesia, he said, is according considerable attention to those issues, especially waste handling in the oceans.
Indonesia added 12.5 million metric tons of plastic waste into the sea, based on the latest survey in 2015, he highlighted.
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Meanwhile, the assistant deputy for maritime zone delimitation and border areas at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Sora Lokita, said that the AIS forum is an initiative that was initiated by Indonesia in 2017.
According to Lokita, the initiative was based on the consideration that Indonesia is one of the largest archipelagic countries in the world.
Through the forum, Indonesia can contribute to island and archipelagic countries because it shares the same geographical characteristics and challenges.
In addition to these four issues, he said, there are other challenges such as maritime pollution, connectivity, and coastal community empowerment that also need to be addressed.
"Indonesia has a lot of best practices; we do not want to keep them but want to create a global movement, with the hope that this movement will become more massive to overcome the challenges together," he added.
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Translator: Dewa W, Kenzu
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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