HE Rizal Sukma, The new Ambassador to Indonesia
Main points on the Ambassador's Briefing on February 29th, 2016:
- He expressed highest appreciation to Lord Astor of Heaver, one of the patrons in the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council, members of the Council; and Mr. Richard Graham, Chairman of the All Parliament Group for Indonesia as well the UK Prime Minister Special Trade Envoy to Indonesia and the ASEAN Economic Community for the warm welcome and for kindly hosting the event.
- Ambassador Sukma stressed that the UK is one of the important partners for Indonesia and expressed appreciation for continued UK's support to Indonesia and believe that there are still ample opportunities for the two countries to strengthen and deepen their relations.
- Ambassador Sukma believed that Indonesia and the UK share or have some interface of interests namely:
a) Both Indonesia and the UK are maritime countries and share the same interest to ensure freedom and safety of navigation (good order at sea);
b) Both countries could work together to increase trade volume and investment;
c) Indonesia and the UK has to explore more cooperation in the field of education, science and technology;
d) Indonesia and the UK are both democratic countries. Through increasing the people-to-people countries, both countries can strengthen their cooperation to promote tolerance and dialogues;
e) Indonesia and UK are both committed to ensure the stability in the Southeast Asia region. Indonesia appreciates the UK's continued support for Indonesia's territorial integrity, for ASEAN to play a strategic role to in the South China Sea issue;
f) Both countries are partners in the efforts to address global concerns on health, climate change, transnational crime and terrorism.