Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met in Jakarta on March 6 to discuss ways to boost bilateral ties, particularly trade and investment.

Talking the press after their talks, the Indonesian FM stressed that the two countries have a great potential for win-win cooperation as both sides are members of the Eight Developing Countries (D8), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran spoke highly of the important role played by Indonesia in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as at regional and global forums.

He pledged to increase bilateral cooperation in the fields of economics, politics and culture.

The two ministers also discussed how to increase all-round cooperation, especially in security, trade and investment, science and technology, education, youths, sports and people-to-people exchange.

At the Indonesia-Iran Business Forum in Jakarta on March 5, representatives from the two governments signed an agreement on Iran’s oil supply for Indonesia and investment of 3 billion USD in oil refineries in Indonesia’s West Java and Banten.

On the occasion, a memorandum of understanding on establishing the Indonesia-Iran Investment Promotion Committee was also inked.

With a population of 80 million, Iran is now a promising market for Indonesia’s food, paper, rubber, automobile spare parts, electronics, apparels and raw materials, while Indonesia is major consumer of steel and metal products and food from Iran.-VNA