Yogyakarta, January 17, 2025─The Department of International Relations (IR) of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada received a visit from H.E. Juan-Pablo Valdes, Political Counselor of the Canadian Embassy in Indonesia. The visit, which took place in the Common Room of DIHI UGM, aimed to explore the social and political dynamics of Indonesia as the host country.
“Our duty is to understand the political and social dynamics of host countries,” said Mr. Valdes.
The visit was welcomed by the ranks of IR UGM lecturers led by Prof. Dr. Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro, Head of IR UGM, and attended by Drs. Muhadi Sugiono, MA., Dr. Titik Firawati, Dr. Suci Lestari Yuana, and Dr. Muhammad Rum.
During the visit, Mr. Valdes discussed the close bilateral relations between Canada and Indonesia. One of the successes that was highlighted was the ICA-CEPA (Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) which was successfully concluded at the end of 2024, which became an important milestone in economic cooperation between the two countries.
Drs. Muhadi Sugiono, MA. responded that the ICA-CEPA could be an example of effective negotiation and could be a lesson-learned for Indonesia in establishing agreements with other countries that often take a long time to complete.
In addition, the discussion also covered various other important topics, such as the economic relationship between Indonesia and Canada which has great potential to be developed, especially in the trade and investment sectors. Not only that, other topics that were also discussed included Indonesia’s foreign policy under the new government, environmental issues in Canada, and opportunities for collaboration between the two countries.