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Indonesia, Panama seek stronger economic ties
Panamanian Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes arrived in Jakarta this week to discuss expanding the Central American country's bilateral relations with Indonesia.
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Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (right) speaks to the press while her Panamanian counterpart Erika Mouynes looks on, during the latter's official visit to Indonesia at the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta, on Thursday (Courtesy of Foreign Ministry/-)
Indonesia and Panama have agreed to explore deeper cooperation on health and post-pandemic recovery, as they seek to make the best of growing transcontinental trade relations.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi hosted talks for her Panamanian counterpart Erika Mouynes on Thursday, during the latter’s first official visit to Indonesia.
The ministers signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for diplomatic capacity building and a letter of intent (LOI) for establishing a strategic partnership between the Transportation Ministry’s human resources department and the International Maritime University of Panama.
Retno said afterward that Mouynes was the second Panamanian foreign minister she had hosted in Jakarta in the last five years, which showed how the two countries were keen on expanding their relations in various sectors.
“Today, Panama is Indonesia’s largest trading partner in Central America, as well as an important partner in Central America and the Caribbean,” the minister said during a joint press conference on Thursday.
One of the topics the ministers discussed was health cooperation, with Retno saying the two countries agreed that equal access to vaccines and vaccinations played an important part in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and meeting the World Health Organization’s target of 70 percent full vaccination coverage by mid-2022.
Retno also told Mouynes that strengthening global health architecture was one of the priority issues in Indonesia’s Group of 20 (G20) presidency, and that it was committed to supporting the global vaccine equity initiative COVAX, the summit for which President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is to cochair on Friday.
