Indonesia, Iran Sign Preferential Trade Agreement

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)
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Indonesia, Iran Sign Preferential Trade Agreement

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)

The leaders of Indonesia and Iran on Tuesday signed a preferential trade agreement to expand economic relations during an official visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Jakarta.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after the signing as streamed online by his cabinet secretariat, hoped the agreement “would increase trade between Indonesia and Iran” but did not provide details.

After signing 10 agreements at the Bogor Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Widodo told media he hoped the PTA would increase transactions between Indonesia and Iran, reported AFP.

The agreement would give Indonesia greater access to Iranian markets, particularly with regard to its exports of vegetable oil, cocoa, coffee and tobacco, said the Indonesian Trade Ministry.

For his part, Raisi, who is on his first official visit to the archipelago nation, said that Iran and Indonesia have decided to increase their annual trade ties to $20 billion while seeking to use national currencies to settle trade payments.

“We believe that sanctions and threats cannot stop us in any way from cooperation and communication with neighboring countries, Muslim nations and countries that are aligned with us,” Raisi said.

Indonesian trade ministry official Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono said on Tuesday the two countries had agreed on a “countertrade” scheme in which goods and services can be exchanged “without being constrained by scarcity or currency difficulties.”

Two-way trade between the nations currently amounts to around $250 million, with the Southeast Asian country recording about a $200 million surplus, according to the Indonesian trade ministry.

Djatmiko told reporters on Monday Indonesia is keen to boost trade with the Middle East and the surrounding region.

“Iran could be a gateway to the surrounding region, such as Central Asia ... or even to Türkiye because we do not have any trade deal with Türkiye yet,” he said.

Under Tuesday's agreement, Iran would give Indonesia greater access to products like processed food and pharmaceuticals, textile, palm oil, coffee and tea, while Indonesia will lower tariffs for Iran's oil and chemical products, metals and some dairy products.

Raisi's visit comes as ties between Iran and the West have become increasingly strained following the Iranian security forces' violent crackdown on protests against the country's clerical elite after the death of a Kurdish woman in custody of the morality police last year.

Several countries, including the US, have imposed broad sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program and alleged rights violations.

This week, the EU imposed the eighth round of sanctions over Tehran's brutal crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.

Trade between Indonesia and Iran dropped from $715.5 million to $141.6 million in 2019 after the US imposed its sanctions.



Irish University to Cut Links with Israel Over Gaza War

 A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Irish University to Cut Links with Israel Over Gaza War

 A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)

Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law".

The university's board informed students by email on Wednesday that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel".

The recommendations would be "enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law", said the email sent by the board's chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP.

The taskforce was set up after part of the university's campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza.

Among the taskforce's recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest "from all companies headquartered in Israel" and to "enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms" and "no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities".

The university also said that it would "enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities".

Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email.

The board also said that the university "should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation".

It "should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel's participation in such collaborations," it added.

Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel's response to the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.

Polls since the start of the war have shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland.

In May 2024, Dublin joined several other European countries in recognizing Palestine as a "sovereign and independent state".

It then joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in the Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza -- charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders.

In December, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country's embassy in Dublin, blaming Ireland's "extreme anti-Israel policies".