Jakarta, (Antara) - Indonesia and South Korea held the first meeting of the High Working Level Strategic Dialogue (HWLSD) at the Pancasila Building of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry here on Monday.
"This is a mandate of the meeting between the Korean and Indonesian presidents last year who had tasked two vice ministers of foreign affairs to hold a dialogue," Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs A.M. Fachir stated after the meeting here on Monday.
Fachir and his South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-nam co-chaired the first meeting of the HWLSD between the two countries.
The meeting was held to strengthen bilateral relations within the implementation framework of President Joko Widodo's state visit to the Republic of Korea in 2016.
Representatives from the two countries discussed several agenda items of bilateral cooperation, such as in the fields of defense, trade and investment, maritime affairs, social and cultural, as well as consular and labor.
In the defense sector, the two countries focused on the continuation of the Indonesia-Korean submarine deal and the joint KF-X/IF-X fighter aircraft project.
Indonesia has received two submarines, which were built in a Korean shipyard, while the third one is expected to be built in the Indonesian shipyard of PT PAL Indonesia in Surabaya under a transfer of technology scheme.
Meanwhile, the development of the KF-X/IF-X project has been on hold due to licensing problems.(*)
