REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUCHING -- Indonesia has asked Malaysia to jointly fight back on campaign against palm oil.

"We must unite to fight black campaign against palm oil," President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said in a joint press statement after meeting with Malaysian prime minister Mohamad Najib Razak here on Wednesday.

The action is needed, he said, because it has to do with the livelihood of small farmers both in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Minimally 17 million people in Indonesia directly or indirectly rely on palm oil for their livelihood and 42 percent of oil palm plantations belong to small farmers.

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"This is about the livelihood of small farmers in Indonesia as well as Malaysia," he said.

Earlier at the 49th ASEAN-EU partnership anniversary summit on November 14 in Manila, the Philippines, President Jokowi voiced the same concern over campaign against palm oil.

Palm oil is close to efforts to poverty alleviation, development gap reduction and inclusive economic development.

President Jokowi said at the meeting with Prime Minister Najib that the two countries have developed new strategic cooperation program which is strengthening partnership for palm oil through the establishment of Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC). 

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