Jokowi, Duterte firm friends

President Duterte decided to strength the ties with Indonesia, from now Jakarta and Manila have agreed to help each other to resolve a number issues. Among the actual problems is the repatriation of Indonesian pilgrims posing as Filipinos in Saudi Arabia.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte paid his first visit to Indonesia, where the heads of both countries have agreed on mutual help in the many Issues. One of them is the fate of the Indonesian hostages currently in the hands of Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines.

Rodrigo Duterte apologized for the recent kidnappings of sailors from Indonesia by armed militants operating in Philippine waters. Many years, Jakarta and Manila were good fneighbours, so such a bilateral ties have to be strengght year by year. But the recent kidnapping was worsening the relationships, and President Duterte apologized for it:

“I’m very sorry, Mr. President, that sometimes the shipments of […] the coal that is needed by the power plants of my country are hampered [when] crossing that area there because there is a lot of piracy.”