This agreement comes as the result of a telephone conversation between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi, on Monday (7/3). According to President’ial Spokeperson Dino Pati Jalal, the agreement was made after PM Badawi contacted the President. The 10-minute conversation took place while the President was at Halim Perdanakusumah Airport, at 7am before leaving on an official visit to Tarakan.
According to Dino, there were two important points arising from the conversation. “First, in order to see what was happening in the field, the two leaders agreed over the need for situation control efforts. Second, because of this, the two leaders agreed to assign their respective Foreign Ministers to discuss the matter seriously,” he said.
For the visit to Tarakan, the President was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo AS, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris, Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi, and Indonesian Military Commander in Chief General Endriartono Sutarto.
Abdul Manan – Tempo