President Jokowi Attends APEC Leaders' Meeting

Beijing (Antara Bali) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) attended the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Meeting on Tuesday morning.

The forum has held a series of pre-summit meetings since Tuesday, November 5, 2014.

In the APEC leaders' meeting, President Jokowi was seated next to US President Barack Obama who sat beside Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In his capacity as the APEC host, Xi Jinping stated that the APEC members have many potential areas to cooperate in the future, but there were also several challenges and risks that must be faced.

"Therefore, we have to tighten relations and cooperation, so that APEC will continue to develop and provide benefits to its members," noted the Chinese president.

APEC must continue to encourage trade liberalization and connectivity to accelerate the distribution of goods and services, so that APEC would emerge as a regional and global economic growth center, Xi Jinping affirmed.

In this regard, Jinping remarked that China has allocated US$10 million for the development of APEC's institutional capacity as an economic growth center.

On Monday, President Jokowi held a bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama. On the occasion, Obama invited Indonesian President Jokowi to visit Washington to discuss further cooperation between the two countries.

Obama extended the invitation to Jokowi on the sidelines of the APEC Summit here on Monday evening.

"I am pleased to meet Mr President, and I hope we can strengthen our cooperation and personal relations," he noted.

The US president also congratulated Jokowi on his inauguration as Indonesia's seventh president on October 20, 2014.

In response, President Jokowi expressed his gratitude for the presence of US State Secretary John Kerry at his presidential inauguration.

Obama is not the only head of government who has invited President Jokowi to visit his country.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, during his bilateral meeting with President Jokowi, also extended an invitation to him.

He expressed hope that President Jokowi and First Lady Iriana Joko Widodo would be able to visit Vietnam in the near future.

On the third day of his visit to Beijing on Monday, Jokowi had bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US President Barack Obama, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (WDY)