The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received requests for bilateral meetings from 13 countries during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting in Jakarta on July 11 to 13, 2023.
“But the 13 are still very dynamic, because sometimes they are adjusted according to the time, but it turns out they cannot be met because the time is not suitable and so on,” said Retno Marsudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, on July 10, 2023.
Apart from ASEAN countries, several meetings were also held with a number of invited countries outside ASEAN. However, Retno did not disclose a complete list of which countries had volunteered. Some of them include New Zealand, China, East Timor, India, Japan, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
On July 11, 2023, will be the first day of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting, which will discuss the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ), ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and a plenary meeting between ASEAN Foreign Ministers .
The next day on July 12, 2023 there will be bilateral meetings with the various countries mentioned above.
Meanwhile, on July 13, 2023, the Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) will begin which will be scheduled with several invited countries such as India, Russia, Canada, and the European Union.
Meanwhile, on July 14, 2023 several agendas will be held such as the 13th East Asia Foreign Ministers Summit (EAS) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
There are 8 main points discussed in the next few days, including:
- Strengthening the enforcement of the principles in the ASEAN Charter and various codes of conduct such as the TAC, SEANWFZ, and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo Pacific (AOIP) in order to create regional peace, security, stability and prosperity;
- Continue to strengthen Confidence Building Measures/CBM while starting to strengthen preventive diplomacy;
- Pushing for Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) for accession to the SEANWFZ Treaty Protocol;
- Finalized the Guidelines to expedite the completion of the Code of Conduct negotiations in the South China Sea;
- Completed the formation of the ASEAN Maritime Outlook;
- Discuss concrete cooperation in order to strengthen food security, regional health architecture, strengthen maritime cooperation and energy transition including the electric vehicle ecosystem 7. focus on discussing concrete cooperation related to the implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo Pacific or AOIP (ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific);
- Further discussion regarding IORA (Indian Ocean Rim Association) and PIF (Product Information File) as part of AOIP implementation to maintain regional stability and peace.
