President Jokowi Invited To Celebrate Indonesia-Japan 60 Anniversary Celebration

Document- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) shaking hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Summit 2015 Asia Africa, Jakarta Convention Center.(ANTARA FOTO/AACC2015/Panca Syurkani)

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is invited by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Japan which will fall in 2018.

Plan to celebrate close relations between the two countries which have been established since 1958 had been discussed between President Jokowi and PM Abe during a bilateral meeting ahead of the East Asia Summit Leaders' Retreat in Manila early November.

"In a Japanese way they agreed on the importance of high level exchange which implies that we expect the presence of the President (Jokowi) next year. We are now working on it," Japanese ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii told Antara in Jakarta on Thursday.

In the last 60 years, the relations between Indonesia and Japan have been improving very well. Since taking office in 2014, President Jokowi has met seven times with PM Abe indicating that communications between the two leaders intertwine smoothly.

During a meeting with Abe in Manila, Jokowi appreciated the increase of Japanese investment that reached almost 90 percent in 2016. As the index of doing business in Indonesia has jumped from the 114 position in 2015 to 72 position in 2017, the president expected more investment from Japan.

Meanwhile, Abe expressed his appreciation that Jokowi has managed to improve investment climate in Indonesia.

They also talked about the progress of many cooperation projects going on between the two countries, as they decided to speed up those projects.

According to Ishii, Indonesia-Japan relation is always be a very wide ranging, not only in terms of economy or politics and security, but also in the people-to-people relations in the grass root level.

As both countries are welcoming their 60 anniversary of diplomatic relations, they are challenged to use the opportunity to look forward, to talk more about future cooperation which will be really constructive for the future generations.

"The two leaders agreed that next year is a very important momentum for the two countries to promote relations into the higher level," Ishii noted. (WDY)