President of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Prime Minister of Australia, H.E. Julia Gillard had a bilateral meeting in Jakarta, 02 November 2010 to exchange views on various issues of common interest to strengthen the relationship between Indonesia and Australia.
Both Leaders agreed to commence negotiation of an Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA). They expressed their satisfaction with the report of the Joint Feasibility Study on an Australia-Indonesia Free Trade Agreement and agreed to progress to a comprehensive economic partnership, covering economic cooperation, trade and investment issues which would further contribute to building a higher-level and mutually beneficial economic partnership between Indonesia and Australia.
President Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Gillard further agreed that the negotiations should take into account the discussions and achievements gained during the Joint Feasibility Study and that both countries will conduct the negotiations constructively, positively and with flexibility recognizing the different levels of development of the two countries.
President Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Gillard noted that Australia has established a technical assistance and economic cooperation facility to support the negotiations with a view to ensuring that representatives of both countries are able to participate fully and effectively in the negotiation as well as in the implementation of the results of the negotiations.
In addition, the two Leaders shared the view that the two countries need to take into account the result of negotiations on the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) and that the bilateral comprehensive economic partnership agreement should be consistent with the WTO provisions.