President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, his fifth in less than two years, a sign of deepening ties between the two countries in spite of disputes affecting their relationship that include illegal fishing activities in Indonesian waters by Chinese-flagged vessels.

Jokowi is in Hangzhou, China, for the G20 Summit, which will kick off on Sunday, and he met Xi in a bilateral meeting where the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to improving bilateral ties, particularly in economic cooperation.

The South China Sea issue was not specifically on the table during the meeting as the two leaders focused more on economic cooperation.

“I believe that China also sees Indonesia as an important strategic partner,” said Jokowi during the meeting. Jokowi also underlined that he wanted to assure China that it remained an important partner in various sectors, particularly trade, investment and tourism.

Responding to Jokowi’s remarks, Xi expressed China’s willingness to maintain bilateral cooperation in the long run as he described Indonesia as “an important country”.

Xi said the fact that he and Jokowi met five times in less than two years was an indication of their seriousness in building trust.

Among issues discussed in Friday’s meeting were efforts to reduce Indonesia’s deficit in the bilateral trade with China, which stood at US$9.74 billion between January and July, mainly caused by high imports of electronics from China.

Last year, Indonesia exported goods worth $13.26 billion to China and imported products worth $29.22 billion.

One of the efforts considered was boosting exports of Indonesian tropical fruit to China, which remains one of Indonesia’s leading trading partners.

“He [Xi] said that he would push to ease the import of Indonesian tropical fruit [into China],” Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi told reporters after the meeting.

As for investment, both Jokowi and Xi agreed to focus on the quality of investment, particularly in manufacturing and infrastructure.

The two countries also agreed to continue the bilateral currency swap agreement (BCSA) for the next three years, which is worth around $130 billion, as the existing deal is due to expire later this year.

The agreement is part of an attempt to reduce dependence on the US dollar.

Late last year on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Turkey, the two leaders also held a bilateral meeting, which resulted in China agreeing to offer a $5 billion standby loan related to the BCSA.

Although Jokowi and Xi did not bring up the South China Sea on Friday, Retno said the issue was addressed in the meeting, with Jokowi saying in his remarks that “the partnership between Indonesia and China should be able to contribute to world peace and prosperity.”

Recent months have seen a series of open confrontations in the Natuna waters in the South China Sea between Chinese fishermen and the Indonesian Navy.

At least three confrontations were reported earlier this year. China includes waters off the Natuna Islands within its nine-dash line, meaning it claims sovereignty over the waters.

Jokowi flew to China soon after being inaugurated as president in November 2014 to have a meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Beijing.

Jokowi said after the meeting that he wanted the bilateral ties to materialize into more concrete outcomes to allow people of the two countries to reap mutual benefits.

Meanwhile Xi recognized Indonesia as an old friend and a strategic partner China could trust.

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