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oreign Minister Marty Natalegawa met in Beijing on Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, with both governments vowing to increase the two countries’ bilateral trade to US$80 billion by 2015 from the current $40 billion.

Marty also paid tribute to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao later in the day.

Marty’s discussion with Yang aimed primarily at preparing for the visit of Wen to Jakarta next week, in addition to talking about Indonesia-China relations in general.

“Both foreign ministers have agreed to propose a target of bilateral trade of $80 billion by 2015 when China’s premier visits Jakarta by the end of the month,” the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

Both countries would focus their relations on energy, infrastructure, maritime resources, fisheries and enhancing people-to-people contact.

Marty also explained to his Chinese counterpart during the meeting about what Indonesia had done during the last four months as the presiding ASEAN chair.

With regard to the inclusion of the US and Russia to the East Asian Summit (EAS), within which China is also a member, Indonesia views that the summit has discussed a number of geopolitical issues to create a region that has stability, common security concerns and similar levels of prosperity.

Marty also stressed the importance of using the momentum of 20 years of ASEAN-China relations to make significant progress in creating the Declaration of Conduct (DOC) in the South China Sea currently under negotiation, and even concluding the Code of Conduct (COC).

The South China Sea territorial dispute is one of the most complex issues ASEAN countries have to face as Indonesia tries to lead the region in solving multilateral problems.This dispute revolves around overlapping claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which are claimed by China and four ASEAN countries: Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The guidelines are supposed to be used as a basis for the COC.

However, several sticking points remain — including whether the guidelines are to be used as a point of settlement for any conflict, or only a mere declaration without legally binding implications — hampering the progress of the two parties in concluding negotiations.

During a half-hour meeting with the visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister, Wen pledged to promote bilateral ties and cooperation with Indonesia during his upcoming visit to Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Wen said the Chinese government attaches great importance to its strategic partnership with Indonesia.

“It’s an important direction for China’s diplomacy to develop long-term, steady, good-neighborly and friendly cooperative ties with Indonesia, which is a good neighbor and partner of China,” Wen was quoted by China Daily as saying.

“I hope to push bilateral ties and cooperation in various fields between China and Indonesia to a new level through this visit,” Wen told Marty at Zhongnanhai, the headquarters for the central government in downtown Beijing.

Marty replied that Indonesia also attached great importance to its relations with China, the world’s second largest economy.