With the foundation of traditional friendship, the Vietnam-Indonesia strategic partnership in recent years has developed rapidly and effectively in all key fields, from politics, security, defence to business, trade, investment, tourism, transportation, education and training and culture. Both sides have attached great importance to further promoting the strategic partnership. These are all confirmed by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Indonesian leaders at talks and meetings within the framework of the visit.

Based on the results of cooperation achieved between the two countries, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and leaders discussed and set out major orientations towards further deepening the Vietnam-Indonesia strategic partnership in the near future. The President also expressed his wish for the two countries to work together to realise the goal of becoming developed countries by 2045, when both countries will mark their 100th founding anniversary.

Accordingly, the two sides will continue to promote exchange of delegations and contacts at all levels and channels and effectively implement cooperation mechanisms, especially the Bilateral Cooperation Committee and the Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation. The two sides will continue to effectively implement the signed agreements, especially the Action Programme for the 2019-2023 period, the implementation of the strategic partnership, and the building an Action Programme for the 2024-2028 period in the near future.

Trade cooperation between the two countries has seen impressive progresses. Bilateral trade in the first 11 months of 2022 reached nearly 13 billion USD, exceeding the figure for all of 2021 and hitting an all-time high. Building on such results, the two sides are striving to raise bilateral trade to 15 billion by 2028 and make it more balanced. To this end, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc suggested Indonesia consider reducing trade barriers, providing technical support and facilitating the import of goods from Vietnam, including Halal-standard products suitable for Muslim market.

The two sides also affirmed their determination to step up investment ties to be on par with their potential and strategic partnership by creating favourable conditions for enterprises to diversify investments, including in new fields such as digital economy and transformation, green economy and renewable energy. Indonesian leaders said that more and more Indonesian businesses are interested in investing in Vietnam and hoped that more Vietnamese enterprises will expand their operations in Indonesia.

The two countries also agreed to enhance cooperation in other important fields such as national defence-security, including jointly dealing with common security challenges at sea, fighting transnational crimes, ensuring energy and food security while tightening bonds in education-training, tourism, increasing the frequency of direct commercial flights as well as people-to-people and locality-to-locality exchanges.

On the occasion of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit, the two sides reached many concrete and substantive outcomes with the signing and exchange of cooperation documents: including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in terrorism prevention and combat, a MoU on cooperation in fighting the illegal trafficking and transportation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, and another on cooperation in energy and mineral resources.

An outstanding result from cooperation between Vietnam and Indonesia is the completion of negotiations on the determination of the Exclusive Economic Zone in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), creating an important legal corridor to maintain peace, cooperation and development between the two countries, as well as in the region.

Vietnam and Indonesia are both active and responsible members of the international community. As such, the two sides have agreed to continue to strengthen consultation and close coordination at multilateral forums and organisations while affirming their willingness to support each other’s positions on regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Discussing Indonesia’s priorities in the 2023 ASEAN Chairmanship year with the theme “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth”, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that Vietnam would support Indonesia in successfully taking on its responsibilities. Vietnam also affirmed its support for Indonesia as chairman of the 44th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2023. Indonesian leaders also emphasised their support for Vietnam in fulfilling its role as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term.

The two sides reaffirmed the importance of peace, stability, safety, security and freedom of navigation in the East Sea/South China Sea while jointly maintaining the solidarity and common stance of ASEAN on the East Sea issue. They also agreed to promote the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and closely coordinate in the negotiation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law and UNCLOS.