Foreign Minister Retno: ASEAN-Australia Summit resulted in "Melbourne Declaration"

Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit produced two documents, namely the Melbourne Declaration and the ASEAN-Australia Leaders Vision Statement.

" The Melbourne Declaration contains directions for cooperation in the political-security, economic and socio-cultural fields in the future," said Retno in the transcript of her press statement regarding the summit which took place in Melbourne on March 4-6, and was attended by President Joko Widodo.

Meanwhile, the ASEAN-Australia Leaders Vision Statement is the vision of leaders in facing various challenges of geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic change.

Held to commemorate 50 years of ASEAN's partnership with Australia, the theme of the summit was " A Partnership for the Future".

The summit itself was broadly divided into two sessions, with the first session discussing "Future ASEAN-Australia Cooperation" and " The Three ASEAN Cooperation Pillars".

Retno further explained that last year, Australia released Australia's economic strategy document for Southeast Asia, which was prepared by Australia's Special Envoy for Southeast Asia Nicholas Moore.

" The essence of Nicholas Moore's report is actually a new approach that will be taken by Australia to increase trade and investment with Southeast Asia."

"In Australia's eyes, Southeast Asia is a region with great potential with quite high economic growth, geographical proximity of course, economic complementarity, and is part of Australia's efforts to diversify the economy," said Retno.

In the report there are four big things that will be done, namely increasing awareness , removing obstacles , building capacities and deepening investment .

Meanwhile, the 10 priority sectors that will be prioritized are agriculture and food, natural resources, clean energy transition, infrastructure, education and skills, tourism, health, digital economy, professional and financial services, and creative industries.

"As an implementation of the new approach based on Moore's report, Australia has launched the ASEAN-Australia Center which is also a form of support for the implementation of the ASEAN View on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)," said Retno.

Australia is also said to have provided 55 master's scholarships and 55 non-degree scholarships in the field of AOIP cooperation for ASEAN countries and Timor Leste, as well as adding a startup facilitation centerAustralia in four cities in ASEAN, including Indonesia and

Vietnam.

"Previously, facilities like this already existed in Singapore," said Retno.

Australia is ASEAN's first dialogue partner and is also the first partner to have a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with ASEAN.