Deal to improve border control

By TABITHA NERO
Learning to communicate in Bahasa Indonesia will help in the development of better border management, Foreign Affairs Secretary William Dihm says.
“Bahasa is a very popular language in our region and it will help with the work of our diplomats interacting not only in the border area but maybe in other contexts as well,” Dihm said.
He said this after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Indonesian Ambassador Roland Josef Pariaman Manik, to launch a Bahasa language training programme on Tuesday.
He said border management and security was the responsibility of both countries and that the language training  was a step forward to better understand each other and work together for mutual benefits.
“We must work to develop border management and security. There needs to be a strong understanding of livelihoods and of the aspirations of the people from both sides of the border and there has to be an understanding of the policies of the respective governments that apply in that area,” Dihm said.
Ambassador Manik thanked the department for the opportunity and assured the secretary that they would deliver the training.
“The Indonesian language is spoken by at least 500 million people around the world, not only in Indonesia but also in parts of Europe,” Manik said.
“It has also become part of the curriculum in schools in Australia, so I’m hoping that this is a good start in terms of cooperation between our countries.”
The three-month training started yesterday with 20 foreign service officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and five from the Police and Defence departments.