ISTANBUL

Türkiye will keep working with Indonesia on efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip after over 15 months of relentless Israeli attacks, the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.

On an official visit, Erdogan and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto chaired a signing ceremony of agreements and held a joint press conference after the first meeting of the High Level Cooperation Council at the Bogor Presidential Palace.

Telling how he visited Indonesia in 2022 for a G20 leaders summit, Erdogan said he was in the country today for the first meeting of the High Level Strategic Cooperation Council.

Expressing his gratitude to Prabowo and Indonesian authorities for their warm welcome, Erdogan said: “This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations. However, our historical ties with Indonesia go back more than 400 years. Inspired by this strong affinity, we crowned our relations with our strategic partnership in 2011. With today's council meeting, we have further institutionalized our relations.”   

Working together to rebuild Gaza

Praising Jakarta's stance on the Palestinian issue at a joint news conference with his counterpart Prabowo, Erdogan voiced Ankara's intent to "continue to work with Indonesia on the reconstruction of Gaza."

He also renewed his call for the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying: “The establishment of a sovereign and territorially intact Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, cannot be delayed any further.”

Other countries in the region will not be able to achieve stability until Gaza and the Palestinians find peace, said Erdogan.

"The total damage caused by Israel's 15-month-long attacks is nearly $100 billion. According to legal principles, this damage should be collected from the perpetrator," he said, referring to Israel.  

Strengthening economic ties

Erdogan and Prabowo also announced plans to strengthen relations between their countries through trade and cooperation across many sectors.

"We discussed plans to expand our bilateral trade to $10 billion and to make it balanced," the Turkish president added.

“We attach great importance to diversifying our economic relations in the fields of health, construction, energy, food, and halal products (approved under Muslim rules). In particular, we would like our construction companies, which have accomplished successful projects around the world, to take part in the construction of Indonesia's new capital Nusantara,” Erdogan said.

Stating that they also touched on the importance of boosting the frequency of human contacts between Turkey and Indonesia, two countries rich with tourist attractions, Erdogan said: “We emphasized the need to increase the number of flights of our flagship airlines. Last year, 203,000 tourists from Indonesia visited our country and approximately 50,000 tourists from our country visited Indonesia. Although these figures are pleasing, they fall short of our potential.”

Saying he is pleased to observe the growing interest of Indonesian youth in Turkish scholarships, Erdogan said: “We see each of our approximately 5,000 Indonesian brothers and sisters who have received education in our country as cultural ambassadors. The Yunus Emre Institute, Maarif Foundation, and Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency will continue to contribute to our cooperation in these areas.”​​​​​​​