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Indonesia to build new embassy in Berlin
The Foreign Ministry has moved to realize its long-overdue plan to build an Indonesian Embassy in Berlin on its own property
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The Foreign Ministry has moved to realize its long-overdue plan to build an Indonesian Embassy in Berlin on its own property.
However, Indonesian Ambassador to Germany Arif Havas Oegroseno said while the construction would take between two to two-and-a-half years, it would not begin anytime soon. It will take the embassy three or four months to complete the paperwork needed to obtain the building permit from the Berlin mayor.
“Our target is to have the bureaucratic procedure finished in March next year. It does not matter if the process runs slowly as long as we follow the rules,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.
In 2008, during the term of then-foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda, the government bought a 3,000-square meter site for the new embassy building in Tiergarten, Berlin’s diplomatic enclave, just next to the Japanese Embassy. The current five-story building of the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin is situated on Lehrter Strasse, and abuts a hotel and an apartment building.
Havas said a dozen steps awaited embassy officials before construction could commence. Apart from the local government’s approval of the construction’s initial and final designs, a series of tests must be completed, including bunker and bomb tests — which have no comparable equivalent in Indonesia.
Havas recounted that a neighboring country had to drop its plan to have two basements in its new embassy after the local authorities discovered a bunker, considered a historical site, below its property.
The bomb test is another time-sapping procedure. Havas recalled that upon his arrival as ambassador last year a bomb was found inside an apartment 300 meters away from the Indonesian Embassy and it took extra efforts from the security authorities to clear the area. An equally, if not more, complicated mechanism is facing Indonesia, as long as safety measures are concerned prior to the construction project, he added.
Environmental considerations also matter, such as land clearing for the construction. “Everything is calculated in detail so as to protect the environment here. For example, tree cutting is only permitted in winter to make sure animals will not be harmed,” the envoy said on Friday.
The embassy is preparing a new tender for the building’s design after only one bidder signed up for the project. Havas said he would make sure all the crucial decisions related to the construction project would involve Jakarta.
Another problem the Indonesian mission faces is uncertainty over its current tenancy, as the building owner is reluctant to extend the embassy’s contract to lease the property, which will expire next year. “But we will negotiate an extension,” Havas said.
House of Representatives lawmakers have often suggested that the government build Indonesian embassies rather than leasing properties so as to properly facilitate its diplomatic missions. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi told the House recently that the government had procured buildings for Indonesia’s overseas missions in Lisbon, Athens, London and Warsaw, as well as Johor Baru and Kuching in Malaysia. The government is also finalizing its purchase of property in Phnom Penh, Moscow, Ankara and Amman.
