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17.
RI, AUSTRALIA NEED TO ESTABLISH PARLIAMENT-TO-PARLIAMENT
HOTLINE: LEGISLATOR
Canberra
- Indonesia and Australia need to establish a parliament-to-parliament
hotline in an effort to protect the stability of their two countries'
relations, chairman of the
Indonesian House of Representatives Bilateral Cooperation Group (GKSB DPRI
RI), Agustinus Clarus, said in Canberra on Tuesday night (27/03).
"A
parliament-to-parliament hotline between Indonesia and Australia is
important because the two countries have no other choice but to develop
better neighborhood relations," Agustinus Clarus said on the
sidelines of a banquet hosted by Indonesian Ambassador to Australia and
Vanuatu TM Hamzah Thayeb.
Agustinus
said that constructive and sustainable dialogs among the leaders and
members of the two countries' parliaments were also considered
important for the stability of their relations.
He
added that in his meeting with Australian Members of Parliament and
government officials on Monday and Tuesday, they agreed that religious
figures from the two countries
also needed to meet to strengthen their relations.
"Due
to the importance of Indonesian and Australian relations, both parties
want to follow up this inter-parliamentary meeting by organizing another
meeting of Muslim leaders of the two countries," he said, adding that
the Australian side has even agreed to strengthen people-to-people and
individual relations.
Besides
Agustinus Clarus, other members of GKSB DPRI RI visiting Canberra were
Mohammad Hatta, Pataniari Siahaan, Muchtar Aziz, Saidi Butarbutar, FX
Soekarno, Taufik Kurniawan, Bachruddin Nasori, Muhammad Zainul Majdi and
Ruth Ninla M Kedang.
Besides
meeting Austalian Parliament leader David Hawker MP, Senate President Paul
Calvert, they also met with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer (Antara,
28/03/07).
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