DEFA is one of the important results of Indonesia's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023. The agreement's first round of negotiations took place in December 2023 in Jakarta.
"I encourage the negotiating team, with support from the ASEAN Secretariat, to optimize the time this year to reach the target of 50 percent completion of negotiations in 2024," Hartarto noted in a statement from his ministry on Monday.
The minister also highlighted the progress in DEFA negotiations, for which hard work is still needed, considering that the completion has only reached 14 percent of the targeted 50 percent by the end of 2024.
The two directions highlighted by Hartarto to push the acceleration of negotiations comprised implementing the code of conduct agreed upon in 2023, which is believed to make the negotiation process easier.
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Meanwhile, the second is adopting a new approach that is more innovative for the negotiation process.
To this end, an assessment of the negotiation is deemed necessary to see the challenges and opportunities in creating a new strategy that is more effective and efficient.
This approach is expected to be an effective solution and accelerate the completion of negotiations for DEFA, which is planned to be launched in 2025.
Each ASEAN member country will be offered flexibility and incentives to participate actively in the completion process.
To support this, he said, a capacity-building program is needed for all ASEAN countries so they can catch up and continue working together.
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Translator: Bayu Saputra, Raka Adji
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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