President Halimah Yacob arrived in Indonesia tomorrow for a four-day state visit on February 3 to 6, her first and the first by a Singapore head of state to the country in about eight years, as reported by Channel News Asia.
The President's visit began in Jakarta, the capital, where she met her Indonesian counterpart, Mr Joko Widodo, visited a humanitarian project started by the Singapore International Foundation and met Indonesian religious and interfaith leaders, as well as overseas Singaporeans.
Madam Halimah will also be going to Yogyakarta, a city about an hour's flight east of Jakarta that is known to be a centre of culture and heritage for Indonesia.
She will then travel to Yogyakarta, where she will be hosted to dinner by Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.
"The President will also have a dialogue with students of Gadjah Mada University and visit BLOCK71@Yogyakarta, a start-up incubation community established by NUS Enterprise in partnership with the Salim Group," Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The visit is at the invitation of President Joko, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement today.
Madam Halimah was speaking at a joint press conference with her Indonesian counterpart President Joko Widodo, held at the Istana in Bogor.
In his remarks, President Joko reaffirmed the close ties between the two countries, and thanked Singapore for its continued support of Indonesia.
They had earlier witnessed the signing of an updated Avoidance of Double Tax Agreement between the two countries.
Continued efforts to strengthen the relationship between Singapore and Indonesia are necessary in the current climate of global economic uncertainty, said Singapore President Halimah Yacob on Tuesday (Feb 4), as reported by The Straits Times.
In affirming the "deep, longstanding and multi-faceted" relationship between the two countries that has spanned over 50 years, Madam Halimah highlighted several areas of cooperation including the economy, human resource development and people-to-people ties.
"As good neighbours, our two countries have reaped opportunities and tackled challenges together," she said.
