Myanmar and Indonesia will promote and further enhance their existing bilateral relations, cooperation and people-to-people contacts between the two countries.

“Myanmar and Indonesia cherish their friendly relations based on mutual understanding and respect. Both countries support each other at regional and international forums,” Myanmar Ambassador to Jakarta U Min Lwin said at a ceremony to commemorate Myanmar’s 65th anniversary of its independence on Friday evening at the Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta.

He said Myanmar and Indonesia had maintained and enjoyed cordial and friendly relations since the time of the independence struggles of both countries. “We also share many similarities in our political and security situation, in culture and tradition as well as historical perspectives,” the ambassador said.

Myanmar declared its independence from Britain on Jan. 4, 1948.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa congratulated both the people and the government of Myanmar on their Independence Day commemoration. “Our relations have been strengthened,” said Marty, in appreciation of the ongoing process of democratization and transformation in the country.

On the invitation of the Myanmar government, Marty is scheduled to visit Myanmar on Jan. 7-8.

Myanmar and Indonesia established diplomatic relations on Dec. 27, 1949. Both countries were founding members of the Bandung Conference, also known as the Asia-Africa Conference, held in April 1955. The landmark conference led to the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement.

During the visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral cooperation was signed in Yangon on March 1, 2006.

The agreement has enabled the two countries to promote further bilateral cooperation in all sectors, particularly in the areas of the economy, trade and investment, energy, mines, forestry, agriculture and fisheries, transportation, education and training, tourism, defense and security.

 As a follow up, the foreign ministers-led first Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) was convened in Jakarta in February 2007. The second JCBC was held in Yangon in December 2009.

“I am pleased to report that preparations are underway to convene the third JCBC in Yogyakarta in early 2013,” said U Min Lwin.

More recently, Myanmar President Thein Sein met Yudhoyono the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh on Nov. 20, 2012. Thein Sein asked Indonesia to help his government resolve ongoing ethnic tensions in the country’s western Rakhine state, where more than 110,000 people, the vast majority of them Muslims known as Rohingya, have been
displaced.

Yudhoyono stressed that the problem had to be resolved since it had attracted international attention, noting that the issue was a communal conflict, not a religious clash as portrayed to the public.

Besides efforts to end the conflict, Thein Sein said that Myanmar’s government had devoted a large amount of funds for various programs to alleviate suffering and for community development.

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