RI, Malaysia hold border talks in Bali

Indonesia and Malaysia began talks on border issues Tuesday as part of the two neighbors’ intensified dialogue to settle their border conflicts.

The Indonesia Foreign Affairs Ministry said the official meeting of the two countries’ Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation would take place in Bali over two days, with the ministerial level session between Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa and his Malaysian counterpart Dato’ Sri Anifah bin Haji Aman scheduled for Wednesday.

Although the official meeting will end on Wednesday, the border talks will continue on the sidelines of the Bali Democracy Forum from Thursday to Friday, ministry spokesman Michael Tene was quoted as saying Tuesday by tempointeraktif.com.

The border talks in Bali were a continuation of a similar previous meeting held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, in September, Michael said.

The Indonesian government is intensifying meetings with Malaysia to discuss boundary issues and the protection of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia after a series of related events sparked heated tension between citizens of the two countries.

“We keep pushing for concrete progress, and there has indeed been progress and agreed points at technical levels,” Michael added.