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Discourse: Indonesia, Germany support one another against the odds
German Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoof is ending his tenure in Jakarta this month. The Jakarta Post’s Dian Septiari sat down with him on Monday to discuss the bilateral relationship, COVID-19 cooperation and the sticky issue of palm oil.
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German Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoof (Courtesy of the German Embassy in Jakarta/-)
G
erman Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoof is ending his tenure in Jakarta this month. The Jakarta Post’s Dian Septiari sat down with him on Monday to discuss the bilateral relationship, COVID-19 cooperation and the sticky issue of palm oil. The following are excerpts from the interview:
Question: What are some of the biggest milestones of the Indonesia-Germany relationship over the past three years?
Answer: Let me start with COVID-19, because I think one of the most memorable and also emotional events as an ambassador was the incredible mutual assistance that we [gave to] each other last spring when we had to take care of our nationals. We flew 2,500 stranded tourists from Bali and Jakarta. That was only possible because we had this fantastic cooperation with the authorities at all levels in Jakarta and Bali and also at the airports, and it was very important that this could be [achieved] so smoothly.
The second thing is the very good cooperation we had at the [United Nations] Security Council. In the two years we were members, I visited the Foreign Ministry very often and my Indonesian colleague at the embassy in Berlin was very often at the Foreign Office. I think we worked together extremely well; we had a co-penholdership [for the situations in] Afghanistan and [...] supported each other in the themes that we wanted to bring into the council.
The third thing is that, against all odds, we managed to organize the Hannover Messe [trade fair] this spring, the first-ever in the digital way. There were a high number of attendees, and there was of course the joint opening [ceremony] by President Joko [“Jokowi”] Widodo and Chancellor Angela Merkel. And our ministers met and we had political and business dialogues. We were sort of postponing the physical fair to 2023, with Indonesia as a partner country, so we’ll have two years now with Indonesia as our [featured] partner.
Are there any concrete follow ups from the Hannover Messe?
