W

hile celebrating Bastille Day in Jakarta on Saturday, France lauded its strategic partnership with Indonesia in various sectors because of their shared values of liberty, equality and fraternity.

French Ambassador to Indonesia Jean-Charles Berthonnet explained that the two countries started their strategic partnership in 2011.

“Our mission, along with our Indonesian friends, is to translate this partnership into concrete projects and joint initiatives, in line with the major priorities that we share,” he said in the event.

The priorities, he added, include “trade and investment, the fight against the terrorist threat and all sorts of extremism and protection of the environment and biodiversity, as well as exchanges in the fields of culture and tourism”.

Bastille Day commemorates when revolutionaries stormed the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, a significant date in the French Revolution that led to the fall of the French monarch.

Berthonnet said Indonesia was an important nation on the international stage, being a member of the G20 and one that is to soon start its tenure as a nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

On the sensitive issue of palm oil, Berthonnet said France supported a common-sense and nondiscriminatory solution.

He added that direct imports of palm oil to France are to increase very sharply in 2019 with the start-up of La Mede refinery near Marseille, operated by the Total group.

There was also a strong defense cooperation between the two countries, French defense attaché Cmdr. Gaël Lacroix told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the reception. “Our warship visited Jayapura earlier this year, the first foreign warship to visit Jayapura in five years,” he said.

He was referring to the visit of the Noumea-based, Floréal-class FS Vendémiare light surveillance frigate in January.

“We want to visit more Indonesian naval bases on the periphery, not just the major ones in Jakarta and Surabaya,” Lacroix said, adding that the next ports of call might include Tarakan, North Kalimantan and Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

The French Navy’s Jeanne d’Arc training task force visited Jakarta, Bali and Lombok in April. The task force consisted of the Mistral-class Dixmude landing helicopter dock and the La Fayette-class Surcouf stealthy frigate and took part in the multilateral naval Komodo Exercise.

When asked about an upcoming visit of two Rafale jet fighters and an A400M Atlas heavy transport aircraft, Lacroix said plans were being finalized. French National Defense Minister Florence Parly first revealed the plan to her Indonesian counterpart Ryamizard Ryacudu on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June.

“Indonesia’s purchase of the A400M will allow both countries to cooperate much better as there will be interoperability as we operate the same type of aircraft,” Lacroix said.