March 5, 2024

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Shii Kazuo on March 4 at the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo held talks with Ambassador Heri Akhmad.

Shii thanked for the ambassador’s cooperation for Shii’s visit to Jakarta last December and reported on what he gained from his visit.

Shii touched on his talks with Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASEAN DSG for ASCC) Ekkaphab Phanthavong at the ASEAN head office in Jakarta, in addition to the talks with Dr. Hassan Wirajuda, a former Indonesian Foreign Minister, and Adam Tugio, an advisor to the Foreign Minister.

He said that he learned deeply about the wisdom of ASEAN diplomacy. As an example of the wisdom that gave him a strong impression, he cited that South East Asia has a historically-developed “good habit of engaging in dialogue” as means to solve problems peacefully. He also cited the ASEAN unity and the position of sovereign independence which welcomes the engagement of major powers but refuses to agree to everything they say.

The ambassador said that ASEAN has the tradition of giving priority to having talks and places importance on friendship. Explaining Indonesia’s diplomacy, he said that since the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference (known as the Bandung Conference), Indonesia has put a value on having a dialogue and adopted a policy of equality and mutual respect in relations with other countries regardless of the size of the country or its GDP.

Shii stressed the need to spread to Northeast Asia the “good practices of having dialogue” taken root in Southeast Asia, and introduced the JCP’s position calling for settling diplomatically the current strained Japan-China relations, issues concerning North Korea, historical issues, and other problems.

Shii exchanged with the ambassador views on peace in Northeast Asia from various angles.

Past related article:
> Shii in Jakarta meets with ASEAN deputy secretary-general [December 23, 2023]