Question: How are Indonesia and Colombia cooperating in their COVID-19 response, bilaterally and multilaterally?

Answer: At the multilateral level, we both participate in COVAX and other multilateral [initiatives on] COVID-19. We have been sharing information that we get from Colombia with the national authorities of Indonesia, so they have information on what is happening to us and vice versa.

For example, when Indonesia took the decision to vaccinate the young people first, we shared a lot of information with the Colombian government about why Indonesia was taking this measure, [and if we could] follow the same path that Indonesia was taking at the time.

[But we decided] our vaccination strategy was to start with the most vulnerable population, the oldest population. […] From there, we started to go down [by age group], and right now, we are in the phase where we are vaccinating people around 35 years old. This means we have already [protected] the most vulnerable populations with the vaccines.

Can you share Colombia’s plan to open direct flights after the pandemic ends?

The idea of connectivity started with the flight that we did with [Garuda Indonesia] last year. We worked with Garuda to repatriate a lot of Colombians that we had [in] this area of the world, in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

We had to [fly] them back during the COVID-19 crisis. It was a beautiful experience that we had with [Garuda]. They sent the plane to Thailand to pick up some Colombians, and the same flight [went] to Melbourne to pick up Colombians, then to Amsterdam and then to Colombia.

It was a huge experience in which we worked together with Garuda, and from there, [Colombian] President Iván Duque wrote a letter to [President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo], inviting him to work together on the connectivity of the two regions [so that] Garuda connects Indonesia to Colombia and helps Southeast Asia and Latin America be connected […] so that it will be easier to come and go and create the opportunities to do business, tourism and everything else.

We have to work on that after the pandemic, of course, [...] but we think that it is possible and we will still work with Garuda on the connectivity plan with Latin America through Colombia.

What about bilateral trade and market expansion?

We have been working with [Indonesia’s] state-owned enterprises to create a possible market for them in Colombia and in Latin America, and we have been working also with private companies in Colombia to create a condition in which they can come to Indonesia and invest and do business.

One of the things that we believe that Colombia and Indonesia will be very strong in in the next few years is the cattle industry, which can be created in Indonesia through the experience that we had, with our technology and genetics and our experiences.

The Colombia of 10 years ago had no more than 10 million livestock in the country, and we are [now] one of the countries with the biggest cattle population. Around 33 million are herded around the country, so we are bigger now than Australia.

I also believe that [we can cooperate in] e-commerce. In the near future, e-commerce platforms will handle a big part of international trade. These platforms will be the way in which countries will be negotiating goods and services.

We also appreciate the INA-LAC [Indonesia-Latin America and the Caribbean] platform that can become very important in the future for the trade between Latin America and Indonesia.

[INA-LAC was established by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry – Editor]

How are Indonesia and Colombia cooperating in regional forums such as ASEAN and the Pacific Alliance?

This year, Colombia is the president of the Pacific Alliance and one of our allies is ASEAN. Right now we are […] working on concrete things that are important for the two regions, one of them being e-commerce. What we will do in the next few years regarding the Pacific Alliance and ASEAN will bring us closer on more concrete issues and matters.

Last year, with the help of Indonesia's [2019] permanent representative to ASEAN Ade Padmo Sarwono [...], we started to work to become a [signatory] of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with ASEAN. We signed it last year, and this year we expect to increase our cooperation and relations with ASEAN.

What can Colombia share about its experience in overcoming regional instability, such as the crisis in neighboring Venezuela?

The situation in Venezuela, from the point of view of Colombia, is very bad. We don't recognize [Nicolás] Maduro as president of Venezuela. We think that the [May 20, 2018,] election was not clear and [involved] a lot of corruption.

Of course, Indonesia has its own view about the problem of Venezuela. Indonesia wants to discuss this in the multilateral [forum] working all together, but let's go to the fact that Colombia has the longest border with Venezuela. […] We have been brothers, [...] not only because of the borders but also our culture, religion and language.

The situation in Venezuela has [caused] the migration of almost 6 million refugees. We have around 1.8 million refugees of Venezuela in Colombia. But the important thing is Colombia created what we consider to be an example for the world.

We were trying to include them in some way in our society. We [gave them] temporary [legal] status, where we include them in every aspect of society in Colombia so they can get jobs legally and we have information on who they are.

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