Indonesia, Norway to provide assistance programmes to Afghanistan

Indonesia and Norway agreed on Sunday to jointly provide assistance programs to Afghanistan which in return was highly expected to share it experience with donor countries.

The agreement was clinched at the 60th Asia Africa Conference (AAC) held in Indonesia. "We would develop several program activities considered useful for Afghanistan. We expect to get benefit from this assistance program through experience sharing conducted by Afghanistan so we can learn something good from them,"Director General of the United States and Europe Relations of Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry Dian Triansyah told a press conference regarding the assistance program.

Also presented in the press conference was Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia Sig Traavik.

Dian said that Indonesia has considered assistance programs on tourism and agriculture in Afghanistan and Afghanistan was expected to share its experience in agriculture with donor countries.

Traavik said the idea to provide joint assistance program for Afghanistan was to follow suit the talks conducted by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Indonesian President Joko Widodo earlier.

He added that other joint assistance programs could possibly be provided to countries in the Middle East which are exacerbated by conflicts. "We can learn lessons about the best in diversity. We can provide best practice of democracy for them,"Sig said.

Norway participated in the 60th AAC as an observer.