Indonesia Eyes Stronger Trade Ties with Tunisia

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Nabil Ammar during her visit to Tunis on Thursday (21/12/2023).

IDXChannel - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Nabil Ammar during her visit to Tunis on Thursday (21/12/2023).

In Tunis, Indonesia's top diplomat also paid courtesy calls to Prime Minister Achmed Hachani and President Kais Seid. During the meetings, Retno discuss trade, investment, and defence cooperation, as well as support to Palestine.

Retno highlighted potential cooperation between phosphate fertiliser industries in the two countries. Indonesia plans to import phosphates from the North African country.

The bilateral trade between the countries continues to grow. Last year, it reached USD215.3 million, the highest level since 2018. 

" And we hope that with a prefential trade agreement (PTA,) this trend will be even stronger," she stated in a press briefing after the visit.

"Negotiations have been ongoing since 2018. Six rounds of negotiations have been conducted, recently in 2022. Indonesia and Tunisia are committed to accelerating the negotiations. We will make every effort so that the negotiations can be completed next year," she explained.

According to Retno, Indonesia plans to import phosphates from Tunisia in order to strengthen its food security. The North African country is one of the largest phosphate exporters in the world. 
 
"As you know, many conflicts are happening in the world, so the global fertiliser market has been disrupted," Retno stated.
 
"Therefore, we need to strengthen our domestic fertiliser industry, one of which is by diversifying our supply chain," she added. (WHY)