INDONESIA: Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met her Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan in the island state on Tuesday to hold talks on the opening of a travel lane between the two neighboring Southeast Asian countries.
The meeting follows Singapore’s announcement on Monday that it will extend its vaccinated travel lane scheme with Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
The Foreign Mnistry said in a statement that Indonesia and Singapore have agreed to discuss arrangements for the vaccinated travel lane based on reciprocity and to work out further details on the unilateral vaccinated travel lane that Singapore will launch on November 29 for Indonesian travelers on a point-to-point basis between Jakarta and Singapore.
“Singapore’s foreign minister conveyed that the unilateral vaccinated travel lane that Singapore applies [to Indonesia] is based on trust, improved COVID-19 situation in Indonesia, and high vaccination rate,” Marsudi said in the statement issued after their meeting.
The two Foreign Ministers also held talks on establishing a safe travel bubble between Singapore and Indonesia’s resort island of Bintan, which is only about an hour away from Singapore by ferry ride.
On Monday, Singapore’s Transport Minister S.
Iswaran said during the COVID-19 Multi-Ministry Task Force press conference that in pre-pandemic time, Indonesia was among the top five markets for passenger arrivals at its Changi Airport and made up about 10 percent in 2019 as both countries have close people-to-people ties and Singapore is among the top foreign investors in Indonesia.
- ARAB NEWS
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