"This meeting shows that Indonesia's diplomacy must be balanced, namely paying attention to our neighboring countries in the east and not only paying attention to competition between big countries," she stated at the meeting taking place at the Parliamentary Complex, Jakarta, on Friday.
She underscored that Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are committed to mutual support and respect for sovereignty.
Maharani noted that the issue of sovereignty discussed with Papua New Guinea could be brought to international forums, including the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Summit in November 2024.
"I also pushed for stronger people-to-people contact between the two countries. It can be realized through the exchange of visits of youths or education cooperation between the two countries," she remarked.
The house speaker assessed that Indonesia and Papua New Guinea have large economic power in the Pacific, so inter-parliamentary cooperation between them will have a significant impact on the region's prosperity.
With an average increase of 9.2 percent in the value of the two countries' trade in the last five years, she stated that the continuation of discussions on the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) is important.
"The DPR, in the last five years, has played an active role in carrying out parliamentary diplomacy. This is aimed at tackling various global challenges that the world is facing and to fight for Indonesia's interests," she remarked.
In terms of the memorandum of understanding (MoU), the parliaments of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea agreed to conduct mutual visits between leaders and members of parliaments of both countries, mutual support in international parliamentary forums, and capacity building.
The two parties also agreed on cooperation on best practices and experiences related to the function of the parliament in the legislative, budgetary, and supervisory fields, in addition to cooperation between the secretariats of the parliaments of both countries to support the function of the parliament.
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Translator: Bagus Ahmad, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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