By LIZZY OKOJI
ABUJA- The Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Nigeria, Dr Ursa Hararap, says collaborative effort of all countries is critical to tackling the global challenge of terrorism.
Hararap made this known on Wednesday in Abuja during a reception organised by the Embassy in commemoration the 77th Independence of Indonesia.
Hararap described the menace of terrorism as “the `common enemy’ of world nations which needs collaborations, sharing of knowledge and expertise to effectively combat”.
He said that Indonesia had a wealth of knowledge on how to combat insecurity and terrorists, a knowledge the. country continued to share with Nigeria and other African countries.
“Terrorism is not only in Africa; all the countries have the problem especially about terrorism.
“That is why we try to collaborate on how to solve the problems, we share our experience to solve the problems.
“Indonesia has a lot of experience to solve the terrorist problem. We try to share with our friends in Africa and Nigeria.
“And on the same hand, we get information from Nigeria and other countries who have lots of problem about the terrorist.
“Our common enemy are terrorist that is why we need to have togetherness to fight the terrorists”, Hararap said.
On the Nigeria- Indonesia bilateral relations, Hararap said that both countries enjoyed good relationships in so many areas with the expectations of strengthening the relations.
Hararap said that the Indonesian-Nigerian relationships could be taken further and easily strengthened as both countries shared similar culture, had diverse languages and mixed religion.
“We have relationships in many areas, among which are relationship in defence, scholarships, exchange of information, and trainings.
“Also, we have relationship in mining exploration. We have Indonesian companies here.
“In diplomacy, we have good relationship. We exchange so many things. Some of the students here and Nigerian send their students to Indonesian universities,” Hararap added.
According to Hararap, Indonesia, however seeks to expand its trade and export to Nigeria to ensure balance in trade.
The envoy explained that currently, Indonesia imported more than it exported to Nigeria, noting that exporting its rich technologies in Nigeria would enable balance in trade.
“Indonesia imports crude oil from Nigeria but we export a lot of things because we import more than we export to Nigeria.
“Indonesia now tries to promote our industries because the President, Joko Widodo, said that Indonesia want to sell our raw materials.
“We have technologies to make aircrafts, drones, weapons which we also want to sell to countries, including Nigeria.
“We have had communications on this and it is good for us to complement each other and if our country sells to Nigeria we will have balance in trade,” he added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasioned was graced by a good number of the country’s envoys in Nigeria amongst who included the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Cui Jiachun.
Also present were the Ambassadors of Equatorial Guinea to Venezuela, South Korea to Nigeria, and also the High Commissioners to Jamaica, Botswana, amongst others. (NAN)
