President Lee Myung-bak''s energy diplomacy in Indonesia started out with a summit with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday (Feb. 6). He is visiting Indonesia for a state visit until the weekend.

The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to uphold the bilateral “strategic partnership” established in 2006 and had an in-depth discussion on their cooperation for green growth.

President Yudhoyono pledged to do his best to extend a contract with Korea, so that it can develop oil fields in western Madura, and offered an additional 200,000-hectare plot of afforested land for Korea''s use. The Madura project is Korea''s first overseas oil field development project.

President Lee promised to lend assistance for industrial, energy and information technology development of Indonesia. He also offered to help build Indonesia''s infrastructure facilities and develop the country''s electric energy industry.

With a view to preserving global energy resources and dealing with the climate change, Lee and Yudhoyono agreed to make the best of Indonesia''s rich resources, including forest and natural gas, and Korea''s advanced technology.

They also agreed to join hands to develop and build biomass power plants and build infrastructure for the use of compressed natural gas (CNS).

The two leaders also promised to cooperate for early recovery from the worldwide financial crisis. They pledged to seek banking sector reform, macroeconomic policy coordination, and ways to prevent trade protectionism at the upcoming G20 summit in London. They also shared the view that Asian countries should pool efforts to surmount the economic crisis.

They also agreed to increase exchanges in culture, education and security, and cooperate for Korea''s successful hosting of the Korea-ASEAN summit in July this year and Yeosu Expo in 2012.

Lee and Yudhoyono, after the summit, signed MOUs on educational and technological cooperation, biomass industry development, and joint development of a fighter jet.

On Feb. 7, his second day in Indonesia, Lee will meet business leaders from the two countries and give a press conference, during which he will announce his “new Asia initiative” with a view to expanding Korea''s diplomatic horizon.