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| President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo, accompanied by their wives Kim Keon Hee and Iriana during their summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday (local time). Joint Press Corps |
Two countries sign six MOUs
By Nam Hyun-woo
JAKARTA ― President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo held a summit in Jakarta, Friday, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, while pledging to strengthen their security and economic partnership further over the next 50 years.
The two presidents met on the occasion of Yoon's official visit to Jakarta to attend summits related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also a return visit after the Indonesian prime minister made an official trip to Seoul in July 2022.
"Indonesia is one of the leading nations of ASEAN with enormous economic growth potential, and is practicing the secured rules of law based on free democracy and market economy," Yoon said during the summit.
"Therefore, Indonesia becomes a crucial partner for Korea in the Indo-Pacific region, especially within ASEAN."
According to Seoul's presidential office, the leaders shared a common appreciation of the necessity of strengthening the two countries' special strategic partnership to contribute to the freedom, peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region.
To this end, the leaders agreed to affiliate each other's regional diplomatic strategies ― Seoul's Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative and the Jakarta-led ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
As an action plan, the two leaders decided to deepen their defense industry partnership, which has already set multiple records.
Indonesia is the first to import Korea's KT-1 training aircraft and T-50 advanced jet trainer, standing as the largest market for Korean defense contractors by importing weapons worth $4.3 billion so far.
The two presidents reaffirmed their joint commitment to the successful completion of the two countries' joint development project for the advanced multirole combat jet, the KF-21, or the IF-X for Indonesia.
For the project, Jakarta will fund 20 percent of the total development cost of 8.8 trillion won ($6.8 billion), in exchange for a number of planes that will be manufactured there for the Indonesian Air Force, as well as for technology transfer.
However, the Southeast Asian country has been defaulting on the payment, with more than 800 billion won remaining to be paid.
On the occasion of the summit, the two countries signed six cooperation documents related to agricultural machinery and infrastructure, the electric vehicle ecosystem, industry ministry cooperation, Halal-certified food, and patents and intellectual property.
Of particular interest, was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Halal-certified food between Seoul's agriculture ministry and Indonesia's religious affairs ministry. The MOU is aimed at exchanging information and technology related to Halal certification, to enable Korean food product exports to Indonesia, which contains the largest Muslim population in the world. Indonesia is the second country to sign a Halal food MOU with Korea, following the United Arab Emirates.
Also noticeable was an MOU between the two countries' intellectual property authorities on launching a Patent Prosecution Highway program. The program is aimed at Korean applicants' acceleration to the examination and granting of patents in Indonesia, and vice versa. So far, Japan is the only country with which Indonesia has an agreement in place for such a program.
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