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Envoy aims to promote Tunisia
Tunisian Ambassador to Indonesia Riadh Dridi (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)While he was stationed in Washington, DC, at just 29 years of age, Riadh Dridi realized that the biggest challenge of being a Tunisian diplomat was to make people of a big country aware of his home country — a North African nation with cultural roots dating back thousands of years
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Tunisian Ambassador to Indonesia Riadh Dridi (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
While he was stationed in Washington, DC, at just 29 years of age, Riadh Dridi realized that the biggest challenge of being a Tunisian diplomat was to make people of a big country aware of his home country — a North African nation with cultural roots dating back thousands of years.
“At that time, Tunisia was not too well known. Tunisia was often misunderstood as Indonesia because of the similar pronunciation,” Riadh, now the Tunisian ambassador to Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post recently. “This is the biggest challenge — how to promote your country in a very important country.”
Indonesia is Riadh’s first assignment as an ambassador; President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo accepted Riadh’s credential letter in February.
Riadh started his diplomatic career in 1996. He served as a junior diplomat at the Tunisian Embassy in Washington, DC, from 2001 to 2006, during which he felt the shock of the 9/11 attacks in New York and faced challenges following the attacks.
He was later named deputy chief of mission in Washington, DC.
Riadh was posted in London from 2010 to 2015, before serving as chief of staff to the Tunisian foreign minister.
Currently residing in Jakarta, the avid reader said he hoped to travel around Indonesia to witness the nation’s rich culture.
He said that, although he was still new in his new post, he had interacted with many Indonesians. He said he was surprised yet glad that these people knew Tunisia.
“They know Tunisian dates, which are very famous here especially in Ramadan. People are asking about Tunisian dates,” he said. “They know a little bit about Tunisian culture. They know it is a Muslim country.”
As one of the first Muslim countries in North Africa, Tunisia was home to one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world, the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Riadh said.
Speaking about cultural ties with Indonesia, Riadh noted that many Indonesians studied Islam in Tunisia.
Indonesia and Tunisia have “very historical” relations, with Jakarta supporting Tunisia’s independence in the 1950s.
“Indonesia helped a lot when it became the voice of Tunisia in the international community at that time,” he said.
“[Now] my aim is to develop our economic relations […] to [upgrade] our economic cooperation to the level of close political ties,” Riadh said. “We have very strong political and historical relations, and now we have to work to [upgrade] our trade and investment cooperation.”
He said Tunisia exported agricultural products like dates and olive oil, as well as manufactured goods to Indonesia, and imported, among other things, handicraft goods and palm oil from Indonesia.
