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Jokowi discusses North Korea with Mattis
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (left) welcomes US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis before a meeting at the Presidential Palace on Jan. 23, 2018. (The Jakarta Post/Agus Suparto/Presidential Palace)
U
S Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Tuesday discussing a number of issues including the tension in the Korean peninsula.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mattis said that on the issue of North Korea, both sides agree that all parties needed to find peaceful solution to the standoff and that all must work with the United Nations to meet the objective.
Mattis said that Indonesia and the US had similar views on how to deal with the tension.
Earlier during his meeting with Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, Mattis he praised Indonesia’s strategic maritime reach, calling the country “a maritime fulcrum of the Indo-Pacific area.”
“It’s critical,” Mattis said of Indonesia.
“We can help maintain maritime domain awareness in the South China Sea, the North Natuna Sea. This is something that we look forward to doing,” Mattis said.
Ryamizard meanwhile expressed hopes that Mattis could help ease American limitations on ties with an elite Indonesian special forces unit, imposed over human rights abuses in the 1990s.
