Indonesia encourages strengthening relations with the Caribbean

The Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Venezuela, the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, St. Lucia, the Commonwealth of Dominica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Imam Edy Mulyono, has emphasized the importance of strengthening relations between Indonesia and countries in the Caribbean.

This was at a meeting held with the Head of Missions of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Caracas, Venezuela on November 9, 2022.
According to a release from the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Caracas, in multiple multilateral forums, Caribbean countries have supported Indonesia’s candidacy, including Indonesia’s bidding for a non-permanent member of the Security Council (2019-2020), and the UN Human Rights Council (2020-2021).

“Good political relationship between Indonesia and CARICOM members is the basis for strengthening cooperation in various sectors such as economic as well as socio-cultural”, Ambassador Imam stated.

The ambassador went on to explain that “Several businessmen from the Caribbean recently attended the Indonesia-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Forum (INA-LAC) and Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) last October and they are very interested in Indonesian products, especially in ready-to-drink food, beverages, as well as agricultural tools.”

Moreover, representatives of CARICOM countries who attended this meeting supported Indonesia’s idea to encourage more trade between Indonesia and CARICOM countries, including support for the groundwork of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to improve market access between the two regions, which is currently still in the negotiation phase.

“In the socio-cultural sector, representatives of CARICOM countries are very grateful for the various capacity-building programs provided by Indonesia. They also appreciate Indonesia as G20 chairmanship this year by raising concrete themes, especially the theme that is related to mitigating the impact of climate change, which has become a major concern for Caribbean Island countries”, Ambassador Imam explained.

Indonesia has officially been accredited as the Third State in CARICOM since May 2, 2018, the release stated.

The granted status is expected to strengthen relations between Indonesia and CARICOM, as well as to increase Indonesia’s economic relations in the Caribbean.