Indonesia foreign minister arrives in India to attend key talks on Indo-Pacific region

Indonesia foreign minister Retno L P Marsudi arrived here Friday morning on a two-day India visit to attend key talks on Indo-Pacific region.

The visiting dignitary is scheduled to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in the evening and the two ministers will also simultaneously attend the sixth Joint Commission Meeting between India and Indonesia at the Hyderabad House here.

Later, Marsudi will deliver a keynote address at a combined session of the Indian Ocean Dialogue and the Delhi Dialogue XI.

The two Track 1.5 dialogues at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra here consecutively on two days from December 13 aims to build an inclusive approach for a "cooperative, free, and rules-based Indo-Pacific" region.

Hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs the dialogues--which are key elements of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), and the India-ASEAN calendars respectively-will be held on similar, Indo-Pacific themes.

The 6th Indian Ocean Dialogue today on the theme "Indo-Pacific: Re-imagining the Indian Ocean through an Expanded Geography" is being organised with the assistance of the Indian Council for World Affairs.

Delhi Dialogue XI will start today evening and will run through to the evening of December 14. The theme for this year's Delhi Dialogue is "Advancing Partnership in Indo-Pacific"is being organised with the assistance of the Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries.

The announcement of an ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific at the ASEAN Summit in June 2019 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's enunciation of India's vision of the Indo-Pacific at the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018 are important drivers of MEA's current effort to locate the Indian Ocean Dialogue and the Delhi Dialogue within the concept of a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific, the MEA said in a statement.

Other distinguished guests include special Envoys, deputy Ministers and senior officials from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand, as well as the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN at the Delhi Dialogue as well as the Foreign Secretaries of Seychelles and Maldives, the IORA Secretary-General and senior officials from South Africa and UAE, at the Indian Ocean Dialogue.

Through these processes, India intends to emphasise its open and inclusive approach to fostering a cooperative, free, and rules-based Indo-Pacific domain, in which all nations and their aspirations for development have equal space to find expression, the statement said.