Jokowi Asks Putin to Support Indonesian Palm Oil

PRESIDENT Joko `Jokowi` Widodo has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to support and promote Indonesian palm oil products, mainly to deal with discriminatory policies on palm oil products that are applied by the European Union. Jokowi said that the support is another attempt to improve and strengthen trade relationship between the countries. “We are asking for support for promotions and positive campaigns for Indonesian CPO (Crude Palm Oil),” President Jokowi said on press release on his meeting with Putin in ASEAN Summit in Singapore, Wednesday (14/11/2018). Currently, relations between Indonesia and Russia are generally positive and stable, with seemingly improving contemporary and economic ties. Indonesia and Russia have signed a deal to trade eleven Sukhoi SU-35 jets for commodities like palm oil and coffee. President Jokowi and Putin bilateral meeting was focused on increased economic cooperation. The President wants the trade target of US$5 billion for the two countries to increase in 2020, compared to the current trade value of US$2.5 billion. “I welcome the increase in our trade relations. The data on bilateral trade shows an increase by 14.34 percent in 2017 or valued at US$2.52 billion. I hope the trade target of US$5 billion will be achieved in 2020,” the Jokowi said. In the meeting, President Jokowi also expressed his views on Indonesia’s trade with economic cooperation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and said that Indonesia intends to increase trade with the EAEU. “I hope Russia, as Chair of the EAEU, could speed up the collective decisions for the start of free trade agreement negotiations between Indonesia and EAEU, primarily to respond to the submission procedures that we have submitted since 2017,” said the President. ***