Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Usra Harahap, says both countries share similar defence and security experiences and interests even as they are working closely to deepen collaboration against terrorism
The ambassador, who is a retired Air Vice Marshal in the Indonesian military, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Harahap said within six years of his duty tour in Nigeria and ECOWAS, he had deployed his military experiences to bear on ensuring that Indonesia’s diplomatic-military engagements were rooted in the subregion.
According to him, his having concurrent accreditation as ambassador to ECOWAS, made him to also reach out to Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in the heat of their threat to quit ECOWAS.
“The development of relations between the two countries is very dynamic. In various fields, relations between governments are getting better.
“As you know, I have a military background. But, you know, military background does not mean I’m not able to do diplomatic job because diplomatic action is a kind of war without a weapon.
“We come here to share experience because we know Nigeria has a lot of experience to solve the problem of terrorism through counter-terrorism. And also Indonesia, we have plenty of experience in that,” he said.
The envoy said that in line with the military cooperation between Indonesia and Nigeria, he also facilitated the training of young Nigerian military officers to Indonesian defence university on scholarships.
“Some of them have already graduated. Some of them are still undergoing same,” he said.
The outgoing ambassador disclosed that one of his greatest achievements and legacies was his subtle diplomatic engagements in Nigeria and the entire ECOWAS subregion to curb the surge of terrorism.
“We tried to stop the escalation of terrorism through diplomatic efforts. Diplomacy is very effective in making the situation not to escalate,” he said.
Harahap, the longest serving Indonesian ambassador to Nigeria, said he was also bequeathing a legacy of great growth and continuity in Indonesia-Nigeria diplomatic relations for his successors to continue from where he stopped.
“Indonesia is a big country, Nigeria is a big country. It’s our duty to drive growth between both countries to solve challenges.
“We need to have strong commitment to build our relationship with Nigeria and other accreditation countries; a strong commitment to complement each other,” he said.
The envoy added that he would, however, miss some Nigerian dishes, which he fell in love with while in the country, particularly, Suya meat, that is, roasted beef garnished with local spices.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria is Indonesia’s second largest trade partner in Africa after South Africa, with current trade volume between them hitting about four billion dollars. (NAN)
