President Jokowi Receives 18 Requests for Bilateral Meeting at G20

Jakarta, MINA – The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi said that Indonesia received around 18 requests for bilateral meetings, one of which was with the United States on the sidelines of the G20 Bali Summit this month.

“There have been a lot of [bilateral requests] and we are trying to include them on the sidelines of the meetings. So the President has to take the lead, so the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings can only be done in between the meetings,” said Retno after attending a meeting chaired by President Joko “Jokowi ” Widodo in Jakarta on Monday.

President Jokowi is scheduled to attend a series of upcoming G20 Summit meetings. He will also hold bilateral meetings with a number of leaders of the G20 countries.

“Besides the summit activities, the President will carry out many activities including requests for bilateral meetings. We take this number of meetings very well because it shows that enthusiasm and hope for the G20 are still very high. So the country’s desire to engage with each other is still very high and that, once again, we should be grateful for,” said the Foreign Minister.

Retno added that Indonesia would try its best to accommodate the bilateral request.

“But if there are still those who haven’t received it, we will try to outsmart it, for example at the ASEAN meeting if some of them are present in ASEAN, okay, we can bilaterally maybe in ASEAN. Likewise in APEC, we meet at APEC. But in principle, the President really appreciates and is eager to hold meetings in accordance with the requests of leaders from other countries,” he concluded.

Prior to attending the G20 Summit in Bali, President Jokowi was scheduled to attend a series of ASEAN Summits in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Meanwhile, after the G20 Summit, the President will attend the APEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)