Indonesia, EU sign cooperation agreement

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) signed in Jakarta aims to comprehensively boost cooperation across a swathe of areas including security, trade and investment, the environment and human rights.

The document provides the legal framework for future cooperation between Indonesia and the EU, supplanting a 1980 agreement between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The agreement “will guarantee further improvement in the relationship between Indonesia and the European Union,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters.

The agreement comes alongside pledges including 200 million euros (US$298 million) over three years in EU assistance for basic education and 15 million euros to support Indonesian export bodies.

The PCA also comes with the establishment of an Indonesia-EU human rights dialogue, which will include annual meetings between senior officials.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, said the dialogue would not shy away from sensitive issues in Indonesia, such as torture in police detention and prisons.

Bildt hailed the agreement as the first of its kind between the EU and an ASEAN state which “opens a new chapter in the relations between the EU and Indonesia”.

“This builds precisely on the length and intensity and depth of our relationship.”

The EU is the largest destination for Indonesian non-oil and gas exports, with bilateral trade exceeding US$30 billion a year.

The agreement comes after the EU in July partially lifted a two-year flight ban on all Indonesian airlines from entering its airspace, after a string of crashes raised fears over airline safety standards.

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