Speaker Stefanovic and Minister Natalegawa were in perfect agreement as regards Kosovo, and Speaker Stefanovic informed his host of the course of the talks in Brussels and the fact that the conflict in Kosovo is ethnic, not religious, sharing his anxiety about the safety of the Serbian population north and south of the river Ibar.
Offering support for the efforts Serbia puts into the talks, Minister Natalegawa stressed that Indonesia, as Serbia’s friend, hopes that an agreement would be reached, which his country would be more than happy to endorse.
Stefanovic and Natalegawa also exchanged opinions on and offered support to all joint bilateral and multilateral issues on the global scene. However, they agreed that economic relations should follow the level of political relations, which is a sphere that needs a lot of work, with honest joint estimates of the success rate of such plans. Concerning it, Stefanovic asked his host to endorse a speedier Ratification of the Agreement on avoidance of double taxation and investment protection by the Indonesian Parliament, so that the realisation of potential investments into Serbia and the opening of a distribution centre for Indonesian goods in Serbia cold be continued as soon as possible.
The meeting between Speaker Stefanovic and Indonesian Deputy Minister of Finance Mahendra Siregar was dominated by economic topics. The distribution centre to be set up in Serbia would make Indonesian goods available not only in Serbia, said Stefanovic, but in the entire region i.e. all countries in which Serbian trade enjoys preferential status.
Agreeing with Stefanovic, the Indonesian Minister added that Indonesia and Serbia act as distribution centres for one another, considering that the two countries are located in the region of south-east Asia and in the centre of south-east Europe respectively. They agreed that a prompt preparation and realisation of visits of Indonesian business and parliamentary delegations to Serbia, before the end of the first half of 2013, would considerably speed up the process.
Finally, Speaker Stefanovic also met with the editors of Jakarta Press, Indonesia’s biggest daily newspaper in English and the most reputable daily for businessmen and entrepreneurs in the country. Speaker Stefanovic informed the hosts about the situation in the Serbian media, repeating how important this visit is for the deepening of parliamentary and overall bilateral relations between the two countries.