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Discourse: Diplomatic presence to boost Costa Rica-RI partnership
Manuel Gonzales Sanz (Courtesy of Costa Rican Embassy)Despite being separated by half of the world, Costa Rica has strengthened its relations with Indonesia and other ASEAN countries by opening an embassy in Jakarta in a recent move that is expected to boost not only ties between the governments but also among businesspeople
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Manuel Gonzales Sanz (Courtesy of Costa Rican Embassy)
Despite being separated by half of the world, Costa Rica has strengthened its relations with Indonesia and other ASEAN countries by opening an embassy in Jakarta in a recent move that is expected to boost not only ties between the governments but also among businesspeople. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzales Sanz spoke with The Jakarta Post’s Indra Budiari on bilateral relations and the role of the embassy, opened after 32 years of diplomatic ties, in the cooperation.
Question: Why did the Costa Rican government decide to open an embassy in Jakarta? Will geographical distance be a challenge in the cooperation?
Answer: The decision to open an embassy was not easy. It has to be very strategic as we have a relatively small diplomatic presence, with only 48 embassies in the world. The president of Costa Rica wanted a closer relationship with ASEAN and, prior to this, our only embassy in the region was in Singapore.
After analyzing the region, Indonesia was a natural choice. It’s a large country in Southeast Asia with a large market. Costa Rica and Indonesia share common values in their foreign policy, including their firm attachment to peace, sustainable development and democracy, which makes them natural partners despite the distance.
Geographically, yes, there is distance, but both countries interact in various issues. We were visited by the Indonesian foreign minister two years ago. We are also members of FEALAC [Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation].
We also see a potential to work together in renewable energy, as Costa Rica has developed its own technology, including in the geothermal industry. To date,
Costa Rica uses 99.5 percent renewable energy and we hope that developing sustainable energy will continue to be the trend. I am aware that Indonesia is also interested in renewable energy resources, so we can learn together.
Cooperation with Indonesia will also cover cooperation in protecting our sea from pollution and, in the tourism sector, we will develop eco-tourism.
How will membership in a multilateral forum like FEALAC help in bringing the two countries closer?
FEALAC is the only forum where two regions, Latin America and East Asia, work together to relaunch and increase the political will in an international context. Even the plan to open an embassy in Jakarta was also shared to Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi during a FEALAC meeting in San Jose two years ago.
Two-way trade between Indonesia and Costa Rica still has room for improvement. How does the government plan to increase it?
Basically, we need to encourage private sectors to work together and get to know each other, which is one of the challenges that we have ahead. Currently, the relationship between government and government is in a very good form, but now we need to move to the direction of bringing private sectors closer.
In terms of investment, we have more importers than exporters, but we have been very successful in attracting foreign companies in agriculture, manufacturing and services. We have extensive networks in free trade agreements.
If the Indonesian private sector gets to know that, they will be attracted to do business in the other parts of the world, like Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is one of the few countries without a military presence. How does the government maintain security?
We took a bold decision 70 years ago to abolish the military. In order to defend ourselves, we basically rely on three things. The first is international law, as in how we have extensively defended ourselves in the border issue with Nicaragua.
The second is by playing an active role in multilateral forums. There are advantages in being active in international and regional forums. And the last is by establishing strategic bilateral ties with other countries. An example of this was our establishing of an embassy here.
