Wrapping up his week of overseas visits, Jokowi met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, with the signing ceremonies held on Friday.

Jokowi arrived in the UAE capital from his “peace mission” to Ukraine on Wednesday and to Russia on Thursday to meet with their respective leaders, Volodymir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

“Thank you for having us. Amid the challenging situations, we continue to cooperate and strengthen the relationship between our two countries,” Jokowi said in a statement released on Friday by the Presidential Office’s press bureau.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of the Indonesia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IUAE-CEPA). The CEPA covers bilateral cooperation in several areas, including, climate change, maritime affairs, vaccines and medicine, and education.

Read also: Jokowi, Zelensky talk Ukrainian food exports, peace

Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi said the IUAE-CEPA was one of the quickest that Indonesia had signed, with the negotiations taking less than a year.

“With this CEPA, we hope that we can open new trade cooperation between the [two] countries, especially in terms of service industries, halal industries and sharia finance,” Retno said in a virtual press briefing livestreamed from the UAE on Friday via the Sekretariat President (Presidential Secretariat) YouTube channel.

Defense cooperation protocols

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and his UAE counterpart Mohammed Ahmed Al Bowardi signed a set of protocols for the two countries’ defense cooperation.

“Defense cooperation, especially in [the defense] industry, is very important for both countries’ future industrial development,” Prabowo said in Abu Dhabi on Friday, according to a statement published on the Defense Ministry’s website.

The protocols include defense industry planning strategies, joint research and development programs, joint production programs, international marketing programs, defense offset programs, defense technology licenses, as well as human resource development.

Indonesia and the UAE had previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defense cooperation in February 2020 in Abu Dhabi.

Several business-to-business defense deals were also inked during Jokowi’s visit, such as the UAE Navy’s purchase of a landing platform dock from state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL Indonesia. Other deals included an agreement on developing armored vehicles between state-owned arms maker PT Pindad and UAE defense technology and manufacturing company Calidus LLC and a marketing and development MoU between state-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia and Calidus LLC.

Climate, culture, capital

Minister Retno said that the two countries also agreed to cooperate on climate change by establishing the Mangrove Alliance for Climate, to be unveiled at the G20 Bali Summit in November. They also planned to build the Mohammed bin Zayed International Mangrove Research Center with a 10,000-hectare mangrove pilot project in Indonesia.

She added that Nahdlatul Ulama University, Yogyakarta and Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University for Humanities had agreed to establish a “school of future studies”, an interdisciplinary institution focusing on social sciences and technology.

Read also: UAE reaffirms investment in new capital city through INA

The Nusantara capital city (IKN) project was also discussed during the bilateral talks to follow up on the UAE’s investment commitments in developing Indonesia’s new capital in Kalimantan.

Retno said the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) would establish a so-called IKN Fund to come up with investment packages in cooperation with the UAE’s investment authorities. In the meantime, the Indonesian government was currently drafting an investment regulation for Nusantara.

She added that the INA was currently working on projects for the UAE’s US$10 billion investment pledge. Potential development projects included the Komodo Fund for start-ups, toll roads, the Tanjung Priok Port Container Terminal and the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport cargo village.

Retno also said that President Jokowi had shared information on the situation in Ukraine as well as his Kyiv and Moscow visits with President Mohammed.

“The President [Jokowi] reiterated that despite the difficult situation, the spirit for peace must not diminish. All parties must contribute to restore the global supply chain for food and fertilizer,” she said.

In addition to the IUAE-CEPA, Jokowi and Mohammed reportedly signed an Indonesia-UAE free trade agreement, according to Reuters. The contents of the agreement were yet to be released and must first be ratified before it entered into force.