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span class="inline inline-left">Meet the press: Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (left) and Myanmar’s democratic icon and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi speak at a press conference at Suu Kyi’s lakeside residence in Yangon on Wednesday. Courtesy Indonesian Foreign MinistryIndonesia has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Myanmar’s political reforms as foreign ministers of both countries met in Yangon on Wednesday.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa met with his Myanmarese counterpart U Wunna Maung Lwin in the second forum of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), the first of which was held in 2007.

Marty said Indonesia and Myanmar had agreed to work on priority areas, namely politics, economy and cooperation within ASEAN. Indonesia is currently chairing ASEAN, while Myanmar is set to take up the reins of the regional leadership post in 2014.

“In the political area, Indonesia expressed its readiness to continue working closely with Myanmar in promoting democratization and government reforms, especially through various capacity building programs,” Marty told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

“Indonesia’s interest is to share with Myanmar its lessons learned in dealing with challenges, especially in relation to ethnic conflicts,” he added.

The international community has praised Indonesia for its transformation from authoritarian state to democracy since the fall of Soeharto in 1998.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry specified that Indonesia had offered Myanmar technical support and capacity building in the fields of good governance, democracy and human rights among others.

Marty said Indonesia and Myanmar were committed to boosting two-way trade and working on food security.

“We want to achieve the target of US$500 million in bilateral trade volume by 2015, to promote direct investment in various areas, including infrastructure and tourism, and to [boost] cooperation in forestry, agriculture and fishery.”

According to the Trade Ministry, two-way trade between Indonesia and Myanmar stood at $173 million in the first nine months of the year.

Both ministers agreed on the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the East Asia and Asia-Pacific regions, which are seen as the engines of global growth.