By Ambassador(p) Gheorghe SAVUICA*
President of IRSEA
Bilaterally and multilaterally, Romania and Indonesia form a robust relationship. It can, easily, be characterized as a true example of real fruitful traditional links, which started long time ago during the vigorous leadership of Soekarno. Recently, there are of important bilateral significance the visit to Romania in 2003 by the President of Indonesia and the immediate return visit to Indonesia in 2004 by the President of Romania.
As a result of the visit to Romania, the two friendly countries signed a Joint political Declaration on the future development of the bilateral relations, which, as IRSEA expressed several times, its opinion, it could be a starting point and the foundation for upgrading the bilateral relations at a new stage, namely a strategic partnership, as a complementary to the already existing since 2020 EU-ASEAN Strategic Partnership. The return Presidential visit in 2004 created a solid bilateral set of understandings meant to elevate the economic and trade relations as well as the juridical framework of Romanian-Indonesian ties.
It is higher time to renew the high level bilateral political dialogue , particularly that in a short future both countries will have new Presidencies.
Just these days, there were official statements according to which Romania is on the way to join the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) - a very remarkable political decision resolutely endorsed by Indonesia.
H.E. Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to Romania, in his speech delivered at the Reception dedicated to the 79th Anniversary of the Independence Day of Indonesia, presented the latest evaluation of the Indonesian-Romanian relations as follows:
“There are few capital cities that are as far away from Bucharest as my hometown of Jakarta. In fact, when comparing the capitals of resident Embassies here, only Santiago, Lima, Buenos Aires and Brasilia are of greater distance than Jakarta.
But such distance, does not mean Indonesia & Romania are distant.
On the contrary, that distance did not stop Romania from opening diplomatic relations soon after the de jure recognition of our sovereignty. We are thankful for Romania’s loyalty which next year marks 75-years of friendship.
That distance has also not stopped more than 40,000 Romanians from visiting Indonesia in the last 18 months. The highest ever number of Romanian visitors over any same period in our history.
Vice, versa. Distance has not been an issue as the number of Indonesian citizens living in Romania – be it workers or students – reached a new high. I am deeply grateful that the number of Indonesian recipients of the Romanian govt scholarship has increased this year.
Neither has distance prevented bilateral trade from reaching a new record last year.
Mr. State Secretary, I could ramble on detailing the many bilateral achievements as is custom in a diplomatic speech. For example, I could tell you that half a dozen senators and parliamentarians visited here the last two months, but I won’t.
I could tell you how our National Counter Terrorism Agency and the Serviciul Roman de Informatii (SRI) signed a watershed agreement in June, but I don’t think will.
I could also tell you that we are finalizing agreements on Defense, Tourism, Labor, an exchange between our National News Agencies, and educational cooperation, but I will leave that for another time.
In short. Suffice to say Mr. Secretary, with our joint efforts, I believe that the distance of 9,754 kilometers between Bucharest and Jakarta can only grow closer. Much distance between us, yes. But distant from each other, NO! …”
The publishing of the above remarks has the consent of H.E. Ambassador Meidyantama Suryodiningrat, based on the excellent relations so happily existing between the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia and the Romanian Institute for Europe –Asia Studies.
* The author is the Founder and President of IRSEA and Founder and Honorary President of Romania-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is a graduate of Moscow State Institute of International Relations. As a career diplomat with over four decades of diplomatic service, an University recognized specialist on Southeast Asia and ASEAN, speaker of Bahasa Indonesia, Russian and English, he represented Romania as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan and Indonesia and Chief of Mission, with Cabinet Letter, to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cyprus, Finland and Estonia.
He published multiple articles, thought-pieces and commentaries reflecting his views on current dynamics in International Affairs and the ongoing developments related to the greater scope of Europe Asia relations. He authored several major chapters in edited volumes on Romania’s Foreign Policy, published by the Romanian Academy.
Ambassador (p) Savuica is a former Director of the Republic of Moldova Division, former Director of the Asia Pacific Division and former Director General of the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of ROMANIA.
He is married and has two daughters, a granddaughter and a grandson.