Indonesian President Jokowi to Make yet Another Visit to U.S

Liputan6.com, Jakarta The United States has always attempted to maintain a desirable relationship with its ASEAN counterpart which include ten of its member states. With countries within Southeast Asian region economically becoming strong, it is deemed vital for the U.S to make continuous effort to protect the tie as it is predicted that Indonesia with its 240 million population will soon play a much more prominent role as Asian economic powerhouse, as cited in asean-bp.com.

The actualization of such desire continues to take place especially with the imminent ASEAN-US Summit in Sunnyland, Rancho Mirage, California in February 15-16 2016.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi informs that President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo is due to make yet another state visitation to the U.S to represent the archipelago state during the summit which will be held in two weeks time.

“President Jokowi is planning to attend ASEAN-US Summit in Sunnyland on February 15-16 2016,” Minister Retno said, Jakarta, Monday (1/2/2016).

According to Retno, the Summit is viewed to be an important event which serves as the platform where the strengthening of relation between U.S and ASEAN nations is done intensively. The relationship between U.S and each of ASEAN nations are also one of the many subjects which will be discussed further. ASEAN countries are now in their venture to adjust into the ASEAN Economic Community era where official commencement was at the beginning of this year.

“Member countries of ASEAN made a significant pact with the U.S back in October. This positions the U.S as a strategic partner to the ten states of ASEAN. We have a plan of action which has been activated through to the year 2020,”she explained.

President Jokowi, together with a number of his ministers have previously visited the U.S in October 2015 to conduct bilateral meeting with U.S President Barack Obama.