Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stare and Indonesian Director General of America and Europe Ambassador Retno Marsudi representing Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa jointly opened the dialog, the third secretary for information and socio-cultural affairs at the Indonesian Embassy in Oslo, Febby Fahrani said in an emailed statement to an ANTARA News correspondent in London on Wednesday.
The dialog was divided into three working groups each dealing with human rights and security, child rights, and interfaith dialog and culture of tolerance.
In his address, Stare said the Indonesia-Norway human rights dialog served as a cornerstone of bilateral ties between the two nations.
Creative ideas and expanded cooperation in human rights were needed to strengthen the human rights dialog, he said adding close bilateral ties served as a platform to enhance the cooperation.
He warmly welcomed many areas of cooperation established by the two countries as a follow up to the human rights dialog. Both nations had agreed to step up cooperation in human rights which was result-oriented.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Retno Marsudi said the dialog had three significant meanings in that it marked, first, mature bilateral ties in the political field; second, success to preserve sustainable relations; and third, ability to accept difference between the two countries and dynamic developments in respective countries.
The dialog brought together 21 participants from Norway and 24 participants from Indonesia consisting of government officials, military and police officers and representatives from civilized society.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
