Indonesia to Open Consulate in Ramallah Early 2016

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesia will officially open an honorary consulate in Ramallah in early 2016 and will be led by a Palestinian, a foreign ministry official stated here on Tuesday.

"Our honorary consul will indeed be a Palestinian citizen and will be posted in Ramallah," the foreign ministry's director general for multilateral affairs, Hasan Kleib, noted.

The decision to open the consulate has, so far, been viewed as Indonesia's optimum efforts to confirm its presence in Palestine.

Kleib would not as yet reveal the name of the female consul but explained that she would not handle political affairs or the peace process with Israel but would only represent the interests of Indonesian citizens in Ramallah.

On Monday, Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, affirmed that the honorary consulate would not only increase Indonesia's presence in Ramallah but would also serve to deepen the countrys relations with Palestine.

"Palestine has agreed to the appointment of our proposed candidate for the post of honorary consul, and the final administrative process is now being completed," she revealed after meeting her Palestinian counterpart, Riad Al-Maliki.

Marsudi said Indonesia firmly supported Palestine's independence and sovereignty.

While hosting the 60th anniversary of the Asia-Africa Conference in April, Indonesia and other participating countries issued a Palestine Declaration containing support for Palestine to achieve true independence.

At the multilateral forum, Indonesia was among the countries that had expressed full support to the Resolution of the UN General Assembly 67/18 on November 29, 2012, on the inclusion of Palestine as a UN non-member observer state.

Indonesia has also supported the hoisting of the Palestinian flag as an observer state at the UN Headquarters on September 30, 2015. (WDY)