REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) hopes Indonesia will have more cooperation with countries in the Pacific Ocean by enhancing connectivity. He believed countries in the South Pacific such as Nauru, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga are very open to cooperation with Indonesia in various sectors.
According to Jokowi, areas in which cooperation could be developed were people-to-people relations, culture, and education. Beside that, Indonesia could also sought investment and trade cooperation.
The key to improving cooperation, he said, was enhancing connectivity and transportation with other countries in the southern Pacific.
Indonesia had a strategic location, lying as it did between Asia and Australia as well as India and the Pacific. Jokowi said Indonesia's foreign policy aimed at developing the economic and politic sectors.
President said the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) could be used to accelerate concrete cooperation in the Pacific area.
"Indonesia should enter non-traditional markets, including countries in the Pacific. We can offer manufacturing, as well as fisheries and services," Jokowi said.
