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ndonesia and the EU have launched formal negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that includes trade and investment, signaling both parties’ seriousness in forging a stronger partnership.

Launched on Monday by Trade Minister Thomas Lembong and EU ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guerend, both sides have agreed to negotiate a new ambitious agreement that facilitates trade and investments covering a range of issues, which have been on both parties’ radars from the beginning of their economic partnership.

Those issues include dealing with customs duties, access to public procurement markets, competition rules, protection of intellectual and property rights and other possible barriers to trade and service investments. The deal will also include vital chapters regarding closer economic relations going hand-in-hand with environmental protection and social development.

“The EU is the world’s biggest economic bloc. We are very happy to be able to start the negotiation rounds. This shows the spirit of partnership between Indonesia and the EU is very strong,” Lembong said, expecting the partnership to help guide Indonesian producers to have their products meet the EU’s high standards through a roadmap.

The first round of negotiations will take place sometime in the coming months.

The CEPA will also address key trade sectors that have been historically hit with trade and non-trade barriers with the EU, including fishery and palm oil exports.

“CEPA puts a roadmap for us to raise our environmental, hygienic and safety standards for our products and hopefully after doing so, we would earn a little premium from the EU for managing to meet that quota. We aspire to uphold our standards and quality to the EU’s level,” he said.

Adding to the minister’s elaborations, ambassador Guerend noted that the “ambitious” negotiations should surely result in an “ambitious” deal, which would hopefully also serve as a building block toward another CEPA with the ASEAN region.

“The EU currently trades more with other countries in ASEAN such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, which is a paradox considering Indonesia’s size and impact in the region. This CEPA will address that paradox thoroughly as it is a win-win solution for both sides,” he said.

Commenting on whether or not the recent referendum by the UK to leave the EU would be an issue, Lembong said while the result of the “Brexit” was “highly unfortunate” from Indonesia’s perspective, it would not diminish Indonesia’s or the EU’s commitment to press through with this deal, which had been in progress before the referendum.

“It is too early to judge the exact configuration of how the Brexit will play out in the next two years. But nonetheless, we will continue to monitor the situation closely,” he said.

Guerend also underlined that as long as the UK had not officially requested to leave the EU, they were still under the EU’s obligation and were therefore represented in the CEPA agreement.

Trade in goods between the EU and Indonesia amounted to over 25 billion Euros in 2015, with EU exports worth almost 10 billion Euro and EU imports from Indonesia worth more than 15 billion Euros, thus creating a trade surplus for Indonesia.

Indonesia also benefits from the EU’s one-way customs duty discounts for developing countries under the standard Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).

The CEPA negotiations coming into fruition were assisted by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s visit to Europe back in April. Aside from the EU, Indonesia is also currently in talks to establish a formal CEPA with Australia, as well as another free trade agreement (FTA) with four European non-EU states.