Indonesian Govt to Appoint Honorary Consulate In Ramallah, Palestine

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) will appoint an honorary consulate in Ramallah, Palestine, after considering other options of interception embassy and an official embassy.

"The appointment of honorary consulate is the most possible option than to open interception embassy or an official embassy in Ramallah," said MOFA's Director General of Multilateral Cooperation Hasan Kleib here on Wednesday.

According to Hasan, the honorary consulate in Ramallah could be a stepping stone to move further in order to open an official Embassy of Indonesia in Palestine, as mentioned by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on his vision of Indonesian diplomatic policy during the 2014 Presidential Elections.

"In order to have an honorary consul, we can appoint a Palestinian or Indonesian who is domiciled in Palestine. It could be anyone, a tradesman or business people or medical worker, the most important thing is he or she must be not attached with politic," he explained.

Hasan added, the honorary consulate would not have political authority, he is only able to facilitate the visa application for Indonesian citizen to arrive in Ramallah through the Indonesian Embassy in Jordan.

"His authority is to report visa application, not politic, just like the general consulate's function in economy, social and cultural field," he said.

Hasan highlighted that the benefit of using the honorary consulate option was Indonesia does not require permit from Israeli authority to have a state's representative in Palestine.

"It is because the honorary consulate does not have political function, and even though Ramallah is located in West Bank (which is Palestine's territory), but to enter it we need the Israel's permit," he explained.

Earlier, the new appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, Retno Marsudi, said during a press conference that she committed to increase the support of the Palestinians' capacity building.

In March 2014, Indonesia had been successfully hosted the Conference on Cooperation Among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD) II in Jakarta, where Palestinians' small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were invited to display their products and held business meeting with the CEAPAD's participant countries.

Indonesia also met the target to hold the capacity building training for more than one thousand Palestinians in 2014. (WDY)