India, Indonesia Jointly Launch New Economic And Financial Dialogue

India and Indonesia launched a new trade channel on Sunday to better combat global issues and significantly enhance bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

The newly inked India-Indonesia Economic And Financial Dialogue will look at bilateral investment, financial services and infrastructure development as its areas of cooperation.

The two east asian nations share stage at the G20, World Trade Organisation and the East Asia Summit.

"This dialogue will facilitate better cooperation between India and Southeast Asia while contributing to global economic and financial stability, " India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the joint press statement.

Sitharaman also noted that trade with Indonesia has increased eight fold since 2005 amounting to $38 billion in the last year. Indonesia is India's largest trading partner in the ASEAN region, she added.

Mulyani Indrawati, Finance Minister of Indonesia welcomed India's support for Indonesia's membership on the Financial Action Task Force, during its G20 presidency last year and the ASEAN chairmanship.

We will continue to strengthen this bilateral relationship of trade and investment, Indrawati said adding that the new dialogue will look to increasing mutual interests in trade and investment, including human capital.

As part of their bilateral discussions, the two nations discussed cooperation on digital technology, payments system under their respective central banks and trading in more local currencies, Indrawati added.