Keterangan Pers Bersama Presiden RI dan Perdana Menteri Kanada usai Pertemuan Bilateral

Thank you very much, Prime Minister.

First of all, I would like to thank Prime Minister Carney and your government for receiving me at short notice. I also apologize that I could not come to the summit that you invited me to come on behalf of the Global South because of very tight scheduling. But, as I promised the soonest possible opportunity, I would like to meet you. And, thank you very much for giving this opportunity a short notice. I knew you just flew in from New York also. 

So, this is a great opportunity. We have very good relations. Traditionally, Indonesia-Canada, I think, enjoyed very good relations. We consider Canada to be a very responsible, mature leading power of the West but with a great empathy for the concerns of the developing nations, for the concern of the Global South. Canada has always been present in many programs of poverty alleviation, assistance in health, assistance in agriculture and fishery. 

Also, we have very good traditional cooperation in the field of peacekeeping. Many of our officers, many of our troops served under Canadian commanders in many, many areas of the world. So, we continue to be committed to international peacekeeping and we hope that we can always be of use in our cooperation. So, we are very appreciative of Canada’s leadership in the international field. By tradition, many, many years of wise, stable leadership, so we value this. We value our cooperation. 

Today the signing of, I think, the Indonesia-Canada CEPA, Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, is very, very important for us, very strategic economically and politically. So, I am very happy to be here for the signing of the CEPA and I think this will be a historic moment. It will prove to be a significant milestone. 

And, as you mentioned, we work very hard, Sir. We studied 9.000 pages of agreement. So, I mean but anyway we are here to witness and sign this great agreement. So, I am very proud, I am very lucky to be the Indonesian President who brings this back to Indonesia. 

Also, the memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation, we value this. We value our relationship with Canada. We would like to send more of our young people to study here, to be trained here and to work together in the field of defense in the future. We are both specific powers and I think it behooves us to be close friends and cooperate with each other. 

The agreement between our business councils, I think, is very, very important and I command our business leaders in achieving this progress. 

So, Prime Minister, thank you very much. I also was received very well by your Governor General and I hope to host you in Indonesia. 

And, I really admire Canada. As a young kid, I always wanted to be a mounty. No, no, it is serious. I was serious, I really. But, maybe I’ll come back in a private capacity. 

So, thank you very much.

Merci beaucoup.