From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Ambassador of Indonesia to Nigeria, Air Vice Marshal Usra Hendra Harahap (retd), has said that Indonesia-Nigeria joint military training will assist Nigeria to curb insecurity in the country, particularly terrorism and banditry.
Harahap spoke with Daily Sun on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Cuisine Day, organised by the ASEAN Ladies Cycle in Abuja as part of the annual International Women’s Day 2022 celebration.
The Indonesian envoy explained that, through joint military training, both countries will be able to share experience and, since Indonesia had its share of terrorism, the joint training would assist Nigeria in overcoming the challenge of terrorism, including efforts to tackle banditry.
Among other issues, Harahap discussed the cultural collaboration between both countries, trade between Indonesia and Nigeria on one side and Indonesia’s trade with the entire African continent on the other side.
With Indonesia’s rich background in the area of tourism, what is the level of Indonesia’s cultural cooperation with Nigeria?
Actually, we already have many tourists from Nigeria. They come to Indonesia for business and also as tourists. Now, we are trying to promote but, fortunately for Indonesia, a lot of Nigerians already know about Indonesia because many Nigerians are in Indonesia. They inform their families in Nigeria on how they like Indonesia, especially in the area of tourism. So, there is this kind of free promotion from Indonesia. We are very happy because a lot of our brothers from Nigeria in Indonesia promote also the tourism in Indonesia to Nigeria.
In terms of tourist arrivals in Indonesia, particularly in Bali, how many people visit Indonesia annually?
During the pandemic, we had a very small number. Before the pandemic, we had a huge number of tourists, but it is getting better now. You know we had an event in Bali recently, especially parliamentary meeting in Bali. A lot of Nigerian parliamentarians came to Indonesia and also other African countries like Ghana and so on.
What can Nigeria do to become one of the foremost tourist destinations in the world like Indonesia?
I think Nigeria also has good potential in the area of tourism. The first thing is to increase the level of security for people coming into Nigeria and let Nigeria probably make something like the Real African Tourism, something like Safari, because we collect all the very famous animals like gorilla, lion and so on and put them in the same place in the Safari and people will be interested. Indonesia also has three Safari gardens.
Regarding trade, is the volume in favour of Indonesia or Nigeria?
Indonesia and Nigeria are quite good because we buy crude oil from Nigeria. So far, it is surplus in favour of Nigeria because Nigeria sells a lot of oil to Indonesia and, on the other hand, Indonesia’s export is not as much as the price of the crude oil. But for other countries in Africa, the trade volume is surplus in favour of Indonesia, except Nigeria.
How much are we talking about in dollars?
It is quite a lot. I am not really sure how much in dollars, but in Africa, we already have something like $50 million. It is not huge actually because we need to increase our trade volume.
Late last year, you spoke about a pending letter of intent awaiting signatories from both sides, particularly between the ministries of defence of Indonesia and Nigeria. The letter of intent, you said, covered a lot of activities such as strategic industry, education, reciprocal training for the military and business in the area of military equipment. What is the position now with the letter of intent?
The letter is already done and both sides already agreed and we just need an opportunity for both ministries to sign. We have already sent the letter, probably we have three options. The first option is that we request the Ministry of Defence of Nigeria to go to Indonesia to sign together with our minister. The second option is probably our minister comes here and the third option probably is that we sign from far away where both parties are not together, but you sign here and we sign in Indonesia. Another option is that the second men, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, will sign together. But we already have invitation for the Minister of Defence to visit Indonesia for Indo Defence.
How has Indonesia and Nigeria’s defence cooperation assisted Nigeria in the fight against insurgency, including banditry and kidnapping?
That is why we need to have the letter of intent or memorandum of understanding (MoU) on different cooperation. One of the contents of the MoU is that there must be joint training and one of the joint training is on how to tackle banditry, how to tackle terrorism and so on because both of us, Nigeria and Indonesia, we have experience about how to solve the problem of terrorism. As you know, there is terrorism in Indonesia, but we were able to solve it. Nigeria as well. So, we just need to share the experience by training together.
Indonesia produces military hardware. Have you given Nigeria the opportunity to leverage on this to overcome the security challenges bedeviling the country?
Of course, we try to promote our military equipment. The Nigerian Army already has a list of equipment to be purchased from Indonesia. So, we have already discussed that and we just need to finish it because it is not easy to have cooperation like that. There has to be some administrative procedure. That is why we have already made a list from the Army, what they need; the Navy, the Air Force and the police as well.