President deplores EU`s ban on RI airlinesSeoul (ANTARA News)

26/07/07

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono deplored the European Union (EU)`s recent decision to ban Indonesian airlines to fly to the EU region."I have received an explanation from the transportation minister after Europe issued the unilateral decision which I do not like. In international relations it is good if we respect each other.

Let us not take unilateral actions because we nead each other in global cooperation," the president said at a press conference here on Wednesday.President Yudhoyono called on all countries, including European countries, to cooperate and not to make unilateral decisions."The spirit of cooperation is not unilateral. I always convey this to friendly countries everywhere," he said.He said the government had already conducted an investigation and discovered that the EU decision was made because a director general at an Indonesian ministry had been too slow in responding to a letter. "The problem was caused by the slow response from the director general.

It is a matter of regret that such a thing has happened. Someone who has caused problems to the state had better quit his r position. Whoever he was, he has tarnished our image, and harmed our economy and transportation sector ," he said.The president said he had asked the transportation minister and the National Aviation Safety Team to conduct negotiations, including with Saudi Arabia which had almost made the same decision."Saudi Arabia did not do it.

Although they use the EU as a reference, because of its good relations with Indonesia. Saudi Arabia did not want to issue a ban," he said.Regarding the decision of the South Korea`s flight safety authorities to blacklist Garuda as a sub-standard airline in terms of safety the president director of the airline, Emirsyah Satar said that South Korea would continue to allow Garuda planes to fly into that country."There is no ban for Indonesian airlines` aircraft to land in any airport in that country," he said.He said he received the assurance from the president of South Korean Airlines, Young-Ho Kim in a meeting on Tuesday.(*)