Today, on November 12, 2020, the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo is set to virtually attend the 37th ASEAN Summit hosted by Vietnam. Retno also will attend the summit alongside Jokowi, State Secretary Pratikno, and Indonesia’s permanent representative to ASEAN, Ade Padmo Sarwono.
Jokowi will attend five conferences on the first day of the summit: the plenary meeting, the 23rd ASEAN-China Summit, the 21st ASEAN-South Korea Summit, the 23rd ASEAN-Japan Summit, and the 17th ASEAN-India Summit.
This year’s summit is being attended by 10 ASEAN country leaders and eight ASEAN partner country leaders.
The summit will also focus on regional economic development priorities with partner countries to cushion the economic and social impacts of COVID-19, and also mainly focusing on joint measures particularly regarding vaccine availability and production for the region.
The COVID-19 crisis has hit Indonesia hard, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy officially enters its first recession since the 1998 Asian financial crisis after its economy contracted again in the third quarter at 3.49 percent.
In October, Jakarta established a travel corridor with Singapore to facilitate urgent diplomatic missions and essential business trips, dubbed the Reciprocal Green Lane arrangement.
