Later this week, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia will hold their first joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Jakarta. The intention is to discuss ways to boost bilateral links and enhance collaboration on regional and global issues, particularly in the domains of economy, peace, and security.
Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi will attend the meeting on behalf of Indonesia. This first ministerial meeting on Tuesday, which will focus on broadening relations in diverse sectors, comes after the visit of King Salman to Indonesia in March of this year.
Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said: “Indonesia will encourage wider market access to export tropical fruit products. This is important to discuss, because Saudi Arabia is Indonesia's largest trading partner in the Middle East. In addition, one of the main issues that will be raised is the protection of more than 600,000 Indonesian workers.”
As per the first agreement signed earlier this month, Indonesia will now allow domestic workers to again work in the Kingdom. This month, Indonesia also ratified a defense cooperation agreement that it had inked with Saudi Arabia earlier. Indonesia will also be the “guest of honor” country this year at the 33rd Janadriyah Festival, the Saudi celebration of heritage and culture, the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh said on Tuesday. According to arabnews.com¸ King Salman will patronize the opening ceremony of the festival on Dec. 31.
