The discussions and exchanges which will take place in this meeting will be beneficial not only to Rwanda and Indonesia, but also to participating countries, including Africa, other African countries, or Africa as a continent, he told ANTARA here on Thursday.
He noted that Indonesia and Rwanda are part of the Global South. And cooperation between the Global South, he added, is already very deep.
Therefore, he said he considers the 2nd Indonesia-Africa Forum very important because it would provide many benefits for participating countries.
The relationship between Indonesia and Rwanda dates a long time, several years before the opening of the Rwandan embassy in Jakarta.
Therefore, he said he hopes that the IAF, which will be held in early September 2024, will be able to bridge the loopholes that exist in bilateral relations between the two countries.
"So, this is our hope, and this is the benefit which we are expecting to get from this forum," he added.
Harelimana also expressed the hope that the forum would help overcome the challenges faced by Indonesia and African countries.
The challenges he referred to include the imbalance in trade and commodity exchange between developing and developed countries.
The Global North wants to take it just as raw as they created, and for almost peanuts. When they transform them in their countries, their factories and industries, they bring them back to the Global South with very high and very expensive prices, he expounded.
Another challenge is the increasing environmental degradation, especially in Western countries, where industry is causing damage to the environment, which has a major impact on the entire world.
"And when we talk about it, when we look at the solutions for them, they look at their economies and the economic side of them, which they don't want to lose," he said.
Through the 2nd Indonesia-Africa Forum, it is hoped that Indonesia and African countries can find their own solutions to the challenges faced by developing countries, he added.
"So, if the Global South understands that the problem needs their attention and (find) the solution from within themselves, I hope that with that, we shall be able to face and to overcome some of these challenges," the ambassador said.
Themed "Bandung Spirit for Africa's Agenda 2063," the forum is expected to be a foundation for building cooperation between Indonesia and African countries in the future.
Some of the forms of cooperation that will be prioritized at the forum include cooperation in economic transformation, energy, mining, food security, health, and development.
The concrete results that are expected to be achieved include agreements between governments (G-to-G), government and businesses (G-to-B), and businesses (B-to-B), and the Grand Design for Indonesia's development with Africa, including with third countries through triangular cooperation.
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Reporter: Katriana
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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