WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen conveyed her intention to deepen regional and multilateral cooperation with Indonesia during a call with the country’s finance minister earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
In her call with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Yellen underscored her desire to expand ties between the two countries to address challenges such as the need for a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and global efforts to address the threat of climate change, a Treasury statement said.
No details were immediately available.
As part of the Group of 20 major economies, Indonesia has played a key role in discussions about issues such debt relief for poor countries hit especially hard by the pandemic, and the need to move forward with climate change measures.
The United States and Indonesia meet regularly to discuss bilateral issues under the 1996 bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.
U.S. goods and services trade with Indonesia totaled $31.8 billion in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.
Efforts to combat climate change are expected to play a key role when G20 finance ministers meet again by video-conference in early April in conjunction with the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by William Maclean)
