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conomic cooperation is the focus of the majority of the 18 new ambassadors who presented their credential letters to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday morning.

The new envoys, including Saudi Arabian Ambassador Osama al-Shuaibi and Mehmet Kadri Sander Gürbüz of Turkey, as well as a number of Middle East and European countries presented their credential letters during a ceremony at the State Palace.

Tuesday’s event introduced a new procession aimed at conveying to new envoys that Jakarta wants to forge closer bilateral ties with each country they represent.

The ambassadors, one by one, took part in the “veranda talk” with Jokowi, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, after they submitted their credentials to Jokowi. Previously, the ambassadors gathered for light conversation with Jokowi, with the latest held in May. The light talks lasted between three and five minutes each.

Mohammed Abdullah bin Mutlaq Al Ghafli of the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed Jassim al-Hamar of Qatar and Ahmed Amr Ahmed Moawad of Egypt, as well as Peter MacArthur of Canada, Michael Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg of Germany, Helene Steinhäusl of Austria and Helena Drnovšek Zorko of Slovenia are among the 18 new ambassadors.

MacArthur is former director general of the South, Southeast Asia and Oceania Bureau and has represented Canada at a number of senior economic officials meetings with ASEAN. While Ungern-Sternberg is former German ambassador to Iran; and Zorko once served as Slovenian envoy to Australia and Japan.

New ambassadors from African countries are Anne Namakau Mutelo of Namibia, Walubita Imakando of Zambia and Yahya Ngam of Mauritania.

Those from Latin America are Deborah Ho Ng de Cogley of Panama, Gonzalo Mendoza Negri of Chile and Jose Renato Salazar Acosta of Colombia.

Other new envoys are Yazguly Mammadov of Turkmenistan, Hinauri Petana of Samoa and Clement Philip Ricardo Allicock of Jamaica.

“Each ambassador has an opportunity in a more private nature to convey their countries’ cooperation priorities,” Retno said after the ceremony.

During talks with Saudi Arabia, Jokowi and Ambassador al-Shuaibi discussed a number of potential investments initially discussed during Jokowi’s visit to Saudi Arabia and when he held a bilateral meeting with Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in China in September. Riyadh has expressed its intention to forge cooperation with Indonesia on refineries, tourism and low-cost housing.

Jakarta’s recent request to Saudi Arabia for additional haj quota, however, was not on the table during Tuesday’s talks. Retno said it was because the discussion was short.

Last month, Jokowi asked Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman about the possibility of Indonesia, the largest sender of haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, securing the unused haj seats of other countries following the arrest of 177 of its citizens in Manila for attempting to go on the haj using unused seats of the Philippine’s haj quota by falsifying their immigration documents.

Energy cooperation, particularly the geothermal sector, was at the heart of Jokowi’s short discussion with Gürbüz; while the conversation with Ungern-Sternberg focused on vocational training cooperation.