Indonesia and Vietnam established diplomatic relation on December 30, 1955, and since then their bilateral relations have been getting better up to the present.
"We all know that bilateral relations between Indonesia and Vietnam at present are strong and excellent, and therefore we want to strengthen them further in the future," President Yudhoyono said here on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, President Yudhoyono and the visiting Vietnamese prime minister held a bilateral meeting for about an hour to discuss and review the two countries` partnership that had lasted this long.
Newly re-elected Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was making a working visit to Indonesia on Wednesday at the invitation of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
At the bilateral meeting with President Yudhoyono on Wednesday, Nguyen Tan Dung said the gathering proceeded in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
"Vietnam positively welcomes the establishment of the Indonesia-Vietnam Friendship Association, and I am sure that the two countries will have a strong foundation to push the ties to a new level," Nguyen Tan Dung said.
Issues discussed at the bilateral meeting were among others related to cooperation in the military, defense, economic, agriculture, and health fields.
Good results and bright prospects of the two countries bilateral relations are clearly shown through a wide range of cooperation fields such as politics and security, economics, society and culture.
There is no crucial issue that threatens the relations of the two countries so far, and based on their foreign policies principals, both countries consistently support their mutual territorial integrity.
Both countries also support each other for candidacy in regional and international bodies, reciprocally or based on friendship and cooperation for the effort to solve international and regional issues.
Therefore, President Yudhoyono at the bilateral meeting with his guest from Vietnam at Merdeka Palace, conveyed his oral invitation to his counterpart from the country, President Truong Tan Sang, to visit Indonesia in 2012.
Truong Tan Sang was inaugurated as Vietnam`s new president on July 25, 2011.
Projection for the two countries` bilateral relations in 2011 is the signing of an Action Plan to boost the bilateral cooperation, and to continue the exclusive economic zone (ZEE) meeting and the implementation of the MoU on Marine and Fisheries.
President Yudhoyono on the sidelines of the 16 ASEAN Summit in April 2010 had a bilateral meeting with Vietnamese prime minister and delivered the importance to raise trade and investment values to celebrate the 55th years of diplomatic relation between the two countries.
The President also supported the development of cooperation in fisheries, coordinated patrol, the completion of Indonesia-Vietnam exclusive economic zone talk.
Indonesia and Vietnam started the technical meeting of EEZ talks by two round meeting in Hanoi in May 2010 and in Bali in October 2010, and the meeting would be held once in every four months.
Leaders of the two countries shared the same perspective that the EEZ talks between Vietnam and Indonesia will boost the settlement of marine and fisheries problems peacefully.
Therefore, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said here on Wednesday that the two countries were resolved to complete their talks on the borders of the respective exclusive economic zones (EEZ) within the shortest possible time.
"The two countries are committed to intensifying their discussions on their maritime borders , namely the borders of their respective exclusive economic zones. The discussions have so far already been conducted for several rounds, and as expected by the Indonesian president and Vietnamese prime minister, they will be completed as soon as possible," Marty said here on Wednesday.
He said a country`s exclusive economic zone comprised waters stretching over a distance of 200 miles from its coastline.
The minister said the commitment to completing the exclusive economic zone border talks began to be voiced when President Yudhoyono visited Vietnam in 2010, but now the two sides had agreed to speed up the talks and finalize them within the next four months.
"It is important in a sense of wider context because we want to show other countries in the region that border problems can be solved through negotiations," Marty said.
He said an agreement concerning maritime boundaries between countries could not be achieved overnight because it should go through special forums and procedures.
Marty expressed hope that that the procedure and the forum could run smoothly so that the two countries would have mutual understanding about their maritime borders.
Concerning the maritime borders, Marty said the two countries had also agreed to step up cooperation in maintaining maritime security by conducting border patrols to prevent or counter various kinds of criminal activity.
Meanwhile, Indonesia and Vietnam have also agreed to cooperate in determining certain maritime corridors where both countries could conduct fishing operations.
"We will regulate where Vietnam and Indonesia can conduct fishing operations in corridors that we will determine," Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said after accompanying President Yudhoyono in the meeting with the Vietnamese prime minister on Wednesday.
Hatta said the fishery sector is one of Indonesia`s prime sectors and therefore the government plans to use it for cooperation with friendly countries including Vietnam.
He said the government would combine fishery and rice sectors into one format for cooperation namely food cooperation.
Regarding cooperation in the fishery sector he said the two countries also agreed to conduct joint patrol to prevent various crimes on the border especially fish poaching.
(T.O001/HAJM)
Reporter: by Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
