Wang Yi Holds Talks with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi

On March 31, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in Tunxi, Anhui Province.

Wang Yi expressed that China and Indonesia are both major developing countries and representatives of emerging economies, and the two sides share broad common interests and have deepened mutually beneficial cooperation. President Xi Jinping and President Joko Widodo have maintained frequent communication, highlighting the strategic and high-level bilateral relations. Faced with a pandemic and major changes, both unseen in a century, the two countries have worked together to address challenges and form a new pattern of "four-wheel drive" cooperation covering political, economic, cultural and maritime aspects. China stands ready to work with Indonesia to build a community with a shared future as the general direction, jointly lead the trend of regional cooperation and promote global governance, setting an example of solidarity and cooperation among developing countries for common development.

Wang Yi said that the two sides should strengthen the top-level design, build more consensus and accumulate more achievements. Efforts should be made to ensure the completion of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway on schedule and with high quality, and support enterprises of both countries to carry out cooperation in vaccine and pharmaceutical ingredients production, research and development so as to help Indonesia build a regional vaccine production center. More Indonesian high-quality products are welcome to be exported to China, so as to achieve balanced and sound development of the bilateral trade.

Retno congratulated China on successfully holding a series of meetings on the Afghan issue, saying that the meetings unite the neighboring countries of Afghanistan and help accelerate the peace, reconstruction and livelihood improvement of Afghanistan. Indonesia enjoys sound relations with China and cooperation in various fields continues to make significant progress. China has become Indonesia's largest economic and trade partner. Last year, trade between the two countries rose by 54 percent, creating 250,000 jobs for Indonesia. Indonesia welcomes more investment from China and its participation in the construction of Indonesia's new capital. Indonesia thanks China for helping it build a regional vaccine production center and is willing to strengthen cooperation in health care and connectivity.

The two sides exchanged views on deepening the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership and agreed to formulate an action plan as soon as possible to strengthen the coordination between the Belt and Road Initiative and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific in key fields. Retno further pointed out that the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific has focused on economy and development from the very beginning, and is committed to mutually beneficial cooperation in the region and safeguarding the common interests of regional countries. Wang Yi stressed that China supports ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation architecture. The aims and objectives of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific are quite different from the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, which aims to provoke camp confrontation and tension in the region. All parties should be vigilant and prevent the resurgence of the Cold War mentality in the region.

The two sides agreed to strengthen coordination and cooperation in the G20. Wang Yi said that China firmly supports Indonesia in successfully hosting the G20 Bali Summit, stressing that the G20 should focus on macroeconomic policy coordination and should not be politicized, and that all members are on an equal footing and no one has the right to divide the G20.

The two sides also exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine and other issues.