Perdana Menteri Republik Islam Pakistan (Shehbaz Sharif)
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Your Excellency, my Dear Brother President Prabowo Subianto;
Distinguished Members of the Indonesian Delegation;
Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan;
Federal Ministers;
Excellencies;
Members of Press;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Assalamualaikum and a very good afternoon.
Selamat datang di Pakistan.
My very Dear Brother, Mr. President,
It’s a great pleasure once again to welcome you on behalf of the people of Pakistan, my government and myself, for your personal interest to visit Pakistan, your second home. And, this is a visit of any President from Indonesia after seven years. It has been a big gap. But, as they say, it’s never too late, Mr. President.
You are mentioning this morning that the Pakistan Air Force jet fighters escorted your widebody plane. I was there along with President of Pakistan to receive you. This was not a favor. This was not a routine procedure. It was coming from our hearts: that a very able dynamic leader from the largest Muslim country around the globe is visiting Pakistan after seven years. We should have done more than what we did to welcome you and your wonderful delegation.
Your Excellency,
Today, our discussions have been extremely productive and gratifying. And, what we have decided to promote are bilateral trade, culture, interaction in the field of medical health, education, vocational training. I think our milestones we have airmarked to achieve, and I want to assure you on my part that I will work with you very closely to achieve all these targets diligently. And as I have earlier mentioned, that our bilateral trade stands at $4.5 billion, but more than 90% represents imports from our brotherly country Indonesia, that is palm oil. We have discussed how to take corrective measures to balance this balance of trade through agricultural exports from Pakistan, through exports of (ITE) initiatives, and of course in many other areas where we can really do to fill this gap.
Excellency,
Today, we have also agreed that we would be very happy to send Pakistani doctors, dentists, medical professors and other related experts to Indonesia to fulfill your dream, that you are building large number of medical colleges over there, universities. I want to assure you that, whatever is possible for us in this behalf, we will do it without any delay, and with great pleasure and most willingly.
Your Excellency,
The great Indonesian poet Sapardi Djoko Damono wrote, “Warmth lives in sincerity.” So, this warmth is out of sincerity, not out of routine protocols, and we genuinely feel that warmth today even though the weather is getting cooler in Islamabad in coming days—it’ll be a very chilling winter.
Your Excellency,
Our relations span over 75 years, and your visit coincided with this anniversary of our diplomatic relations. Let us agree to celebrate these 75 years with great fun and fair in Jakarta and in Islamabad simultaneously, that will convey a very loud and clear message to all in sundry.
Your Excellency,
I have already mentioned that our relations predate our independence. Our founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, supported the war of independence of Indonesia while he was the President of Indian Muslim League—we call it, we call it all Indian Muslim League—and he was supporting President Soekarno to the hilt. And alhamdulillah, in 1945, August, Indonesia claimed its independence even though the Dutch officially accepted in 1949, I believe. I think that was a great heroic struggle on the part of Indonesian people, our brothers and sisters. And then, little did we know that in 1965, our war against our neighboring country, Indonesia stood with Pakistan like a rock, and this has gone into the annals of history in golden words, and this will be remembered by the people of Pakistan for all time to come.
Your Excellency,
The conferment of Indonesia’s highest honor, the Adipurna, upon Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1995 posthumously symbolized the depth of our time-tested friendship and brotherhood.
Your Excellency,
Your visionary steps reflect a deep and sincere commitment to the welfare and uplift of your people in Indonesia. Your unwavering stand on Gaza has really resulted in peace in that part of the world, and by the grace of Allah Almighty more bloodshed has stopped even though unfortunately Israel has been avoiding this truce every now and then, and it’s high time that we sit down and really put our act together and stop this bloodshed over there for all times to come.
Your Excellency,
We are two brotherly countries. And as we look ahead, I’m confident that the bond between Pakistan and Indonesia will continue to grow in strength, depth, and vision. And, your visit today will take these wonderful relations to a much higher levelinsya Allah. And in every sense of the word, our two countries will cooperate with each other for progress, peace, not only between our two countries, but in the entire region.
Thank you very much for your visit.
Pakistan-Indonesia’s friendship, long live.
Presiden Republik Indonesia (Prabowo Subianto)
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Your Excellency, my Brother Mr. Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan;
Deputy Prime Minister;
Distinguished Ministers;
High-ranking Officials;
Distinguished Members of the Media.
Once again, I would like to express to you my highest gratitude, my highest appreciation at the great honor you have given me, your government and the people of Pakistan has given me, by the very warm reception I was given. Even before I landed on Pakistan’s soil, I was received in the air, escorted by your distinguished Air Force pilots, with your JF-17 Thunder—great honor for me. And also, I’d like to express to you my deepest gratitude. You received me yourself, with your President, in the airfield.
And today, we have had very productive meetings. We have achieved many agreements on various fields, and we have addressed matters of mutual interests between us.
We have common values. We have common interests. We are both very, maybe the biggest Muslim countries in the world, but our Islam is moderate Islam which promotes inclusivity, tolerance. And, the historic relations, the brotherly relations between our two countries are solid, and I think it is very important for us in the coming days and coming years that we make use of this history, make use of this brotherly bond to benefit our people in most fields.
I’m very happy, I’m very grateful that Pakistan is willing to help us in the field of health by sending your doctors, your professors and your experts to help us in our health sector. We have a very vast need of doctors and dentists, and I’m starting a massive program of education in this field. So, your assistance will be very strategic and critical for us. We really appreciate that.
And also, I’ve given instructions to my ministers that we will expedite the rebalancing of our trade relations in practical means, in practical terms, and be assured that we want to move as fast as possible in all these fields: field of education, field of trade, field of agricultural cooperation, and science, technology. In all these fields, we want to move very fast.
And also, we are coordinating our foreign policy because we have common stand and common principles, especially towards Palestine, towards Gaza. And our ministers, our Foreign Ministers are closely in contact with each other, and we will always try to, we will always maintain common stand in this regard. Once again, we will not waver in our support for two-state solution in Palestine.
I think, going forward, I feel very optimistic, I feel very bullish, and I hope that, I invite officially Prime Minister Sharif to visit Indonesia and also your leaders to come to Indonesia also, and see what’s happening and maybe assist us in providing your advice and thinking on how we can jointly enhance our cooperation.
Thank you very much, Prime Minister.