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New MIKTA chair South Korea invites Indonesia to shape global affairs
Formed in 2013 on the sidelines of the United Nations’ General Assembly, MIKTA is an informal consultation forum that grouped five middle-power countries — Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey and Australia — and is led by their foreign ministers.
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South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Kim Chang-Beom (JP/I Gede Dharma JS)
S
outh Korea is inviting Indonesia to collaborate in shaping a global and regional agenda, one of which will be through the MIKTA forum chaired by the former this year.
Formed in 2013 on the sidelines of the United Nations’ General Assembly, MIKTA is an informal consultation forum that grouped five middle-power countries — Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey and Australia — and is led by their foreign ministers. The idea to establish MIKTA was first discussed in an informal meeting of Group of 20 foreign ministers in Los Cabos, Mexico, in 2012.
Since its establishment, MIKTA’s five members have taken turns being the group's coordinators every year. The foreign ministers-led meetings were usually conducted on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), all MIKTA members are among the world’s 20 largest economies and altogether, they account for a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$6.1 trillion, or about 7 percent of the world's total GDP in 2019.
“All are like-minded countries,” South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Kim Chang-beom told a press briefing on Tuesday.
The participating countries, Kim said, tried to cooperate in issuing common positions on a global and regional agenda through international forums.
“South Korea, as chair country for 2020, will work on some priority areas, which will be duly decided next month.”
He added that some issues often put forward in MIKTA were efforts to promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the start-up and creative industry, as well as policy coordination.
MIKTA current chair Mexico is expected to hand over its chairmanship to South Korea in early February in Mexico, according to the Foreign Ministry’s director-general for multilateral affairs, Febrian Ruddyard.
Kim said South Korea was envisioning to elevate MIKTA from a ministerial-led forum to a summit.
Indonesia has warmed to the idea and is ready to support Seoul’s initiative.
“However, we need to examine what kind of deliverables we could put forward for summit-level talks,” Febrian told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
This year, Seoul is also planning to host a MIKTA speakers meeting that gathers House of Representatives speakers from the five member countries in South Korea. (ipa)
