Indonesian, Philippine FMs hold bilateral talks

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi held bilateral talks with her Philippine counterpart Jose Rene D, Almendras on Wednesday, discussing ways to enhance bilateral ties between the two neighbors.

During the meeting, the Indonesian foreign minister conveyed the government's appreciation to the Philippines for its cooperation to free 10 Indonesian seamen taken hostage by rebel group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. Those seamen have returned to Indonesia safely.

Retno expected further cooperation with Manila to free four other Indonesian seamen kidnapped by the same rebel group later on.

Besides security conditions in regional waters, the two ministers also discussed ways to expand economic cooperation, protection for Indonesian nationals in the Philippines, cooperation in ASEAN and other regional and international issues which they share concerns on.

"The two ministers also discussed development of ratification process on borders of Exclusive Economic Zones (ZEE) between the two countries whose approval have already been signed by the two governments on May 23, 2014," a statement released by Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

In the meeting, Retno and Jose welcomed the initiatives to further reinforce economic cooperation through both government-to-government (G to G) and Business-to-Business (B to B) schemes.

Two-way trade between Indonesia and the Philippines stood at 4.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, higher than 4.59 billion U.S. dollars recorded a year earlier. Enditem