uatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Erica Jovel Polanco is in Jakarta to inaugurate the reopening of its embassy, in a small win for Indonesia's push into the faraway Latin American and Caribbean region.
Guatemala established its mission in Jakarta in 1992 but closed it a year later when it plunged into economic and political crisis.
With the reopening of the embassy, Indonesia and Guatemala kick off a new page in their bilateral ties, with the aim of fostering trade and investment cooperation, as well as people-to-people exchanges.
The new embassy is the 106th foreign mission in Indonesia and the 14th from Latin America and the Caribbean.
With the considerable distance between Indonesia and Guatemala, the opening of the new embassy paves a way for Indonesia to realize its ambition to tap into nontraditional Latin American markets.
“Guatemala is [among our] biggest trade partners in Latin America. However, the value of our trade [with Guatemala] is still small,” Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said on Tuesday after hosting a meeting with her Guatemalan counterpart at her office in Jakarta.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Guatemala is Indonesia’s third-biggest trade partner in Central America, with total trade worth US$50.2 million last year -- from which Indonesia booked a $48.5 million surplus.
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