I

ndonesia has agreed to grant licensing of SS2 assault rifles to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to enable the latter to produce and market the weapons.

Under an agreement between Indonesian state-owned arms maker PT Pindad and the UAE'€™s Continental Aviation Services, the UAE becomes the official distributor of the Indonesian weapons in the Middle East.

The agreement was signed in a bilateral meeting attended by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and local government representatives in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

According to statements released by the Presidential communications team on Monday, the governments discussed economics and national defense during the meeting.

'€œIn the meeting, [the governments] discussed economic and non-economic issues, including defense cooperation,'€ said Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi as quoted by setkab.go.id.

According to Retno, the UAE is a main export destination for Indonesia in the Middle East, with trade volume reaching US$4.25 billion in 2014. Indonesia has benefitted from $748 million in trade surplus from the UAE.

Moreover, she said that the UAE was currently one of the biggest investors in Indonesia, with direct investment hitting $25.4 million in 2014.

Indonesia and the UAE have also signed an agreement on preventing human trafficking and protecting human trafficking victims.

'€œWe have agreed to enforce laws to prevent human trafficking,'€ Retno said.

She added the Indonesian government was also currently trying to make the UAE its Middle East export hub.