WELL DONE!: Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda speaks with his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen following the signing of the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (CPA) in Jakarta on Wednesday. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda and his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen signed the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (CPA) to boost relations between the countries.

“The agreement aims to deepen and broaden the bilateral relations between the two countries,” Hassan told journalists after completing the final draft of the accord at his office.

Verhagen was in Indonesia for the first time since being appointed Dutch foreign minister in early 2007. He said the two countries had “a long-standing and special relationship” as was reflected by their “historical ties and mutual cooperation”.

“The Netherlands is very pleased with the CPA, as it reflects the broad scope of our special relationship and intensifies our cooperation in many areas: Politics, international relations, legal affairs and much, much more,” he said.

The Dutch minister also met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Justice and Human

Rights Minister Andi Mattalata on Wednesday.

His meeting with Andi preluded Dutch Judicial Minister Ernest Hirsch’s visit to Indonesia scheduled for February to sign a memorandum of understanding on extradition, mutual legal assistance and criminal transfer.

Verhagen said his country would donate 2.5 million euro to follow up on the recent Bali Democracy Forum, which he said “evidenced the important role Indonesia was playing in Asia”, adding that “Strengthening democracy is our common goal”.

Work on the CPA began in 2006. It will pave the way for the enhancement of bilateral cooperation in the fields of security, economics, the environment, culture and education. A plan of action detailing the cooperation will be made after leaders of the two countries sign the accord, the Foreign Ministry’s Director General for America and Europe Retno L.P. Marsudi said.

President Yudhoyono will not be able to sign the initiative this year, Retno added. “The Dutch foreign minister had told his government to renew the invitation in the hope that by 2010 the President could visit the Netherlands to sign the agreement.”

Analysts welcomed the agreement, saying it would be a “new foundation” on which the two countries could broaden their relations. “This is a commitment of both countries to bury old wounds,” said Bantarto Bandoro, an international relations analyst at the University of Indonesia.

Indonesia and the Netherlands have in the past three years seen their relations improve after then Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot in 2005 attended Indonesia’s Independence Day celebrations and acknowledged the country’s date of independence as Aug. 17, 1945. Previously, Amsterdam had not recognized the date, insisting instead that its former colony had become independent on Dec. 27, 1949.

The Netherlands was among the top 10 biggest investors in Indonesia in 2007, spending US$147 million on 27 projects. The trade volume between the countries in the January to September period last year reached $3.3 billion, a 52.5 percent increase from the same period in the previous year.

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