REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - After a long process, the European Union (EU) and Indonesian Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) finally came into effect on May 1, 2014. Negotiations with Indonesia on the PCA, the first agreement of its kind to come into effect with one of EU's South East Asian partners, began in 2005.
"I warmly welcome Indonesia as the EU-Indonesia PCA comes into effect," High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton recently remarked.
The Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between the European Community and its member states and the Republic of Indonesia was signed in Jakarta on November 9, 2009, Riaz JP Saehu, the counselor of the Indonesian embassy in Brussels, said on April 6, 2014.
Indonesia is the first ASEAN partner to have signed a PCA with the EU. Similar agreements have been signed or are currently under negotiations with Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, and Malaysia. Indonesia is a key partner in a region of strategic importance for the EU and an increasingly important player in the global arena.
"We look forward to implementing the PCA together with our Indonesian partners in order to forge a more mature and broad-based relationship," she stated in a press release issued by the EU recently.
The new PCA will replace the 1980 EC-ASEAN Cooperation Agreement and will give the EU-Indonesia relations a new reinforced and stronger foundation. The PCA provides a legal framework for further engagement between the EU and Indonesia across a broad range of areas, namely climate change and energy, trade and investment, science and technology, maritime and aviation transport.
On the political side, the PCA confirms and deepens the shared commitment of the two sides to respect democratic principles and human rights, countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and combating terrorism. The PCA gives the EU and Indonesia an instrument to address these challenges together.
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