Indonesia Keen on Bolstering Defense, Economic Ties with Slovakia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on defense cooperation with Slovakia to enhance the nearly three-decade-long bilateral ties of both nations, said the country’s envoy.

In a recent interview with Kompas.com, Pribadi Sutiono, the newly-appointed Indonesian Ambassador to Slovakia, said the MoU would provide an opportunity to develop more areas of cooperation between both nations, including the defense companies.

“In a couple of months, we plan to sign a MoU on defense cooperation between the Defense Ministries of Indonesia and Slovakia,” Pribadi said on Tuesday, October 26.

“We’d like to develop various kinds of defense equipment,” he added.

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He underscored the importance of building bilateral ties in the defense equipment industry between Indonesia’s defense companies such as state-owned weapons manufacturer PT Pindad and aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia and other companies with the defense equipment companies in Slovakia.

Besides the defense ties, the envoy also said that Indonesia wants to further promote cooperation in economic, including agriculture, tourism, as well as social and cultural.

In the agriculture sector, two Indonesian universities, Andalas University in West Sumatra and Hasanuddin University in South Sulawesi have developed cooperation with a Slovak university to grow wheat in Indonesia. “We develop a new variety of wheat and grow it here in Indonesia and it’s successful,” he said, adding that they grow the wheat that could withstand tropical climate as wheat is traditionally grown in a cold climate.

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He went on to add that Indonesia also exports spice commodities to Slovakia, where it is known as a hub for spices from Southeast Asia countries.

“We also plan to make Slovakia a hub for exporting coffee to Europe.”

Indonesia established diplomatic relations with Slovakia in 1993. The milestones in the relations between the two nations have been the state visit of Indonesia’s President Megawati Soekarnoputri to Bratislava in June 2002 and the official visit Slovak President Ivan Gašparovi? to Jakarta in October 2012, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.