Speaker of the House of Representatives and Delegation from the Indonesian People’s Consultative Council Discuss Means of Consolidating Communication and Exchanging Expertise

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, held talks on Monday, July 18, 2022, at the House in Rabat, with a delegation from the Indonesian People’s Consultative Council, headed by Hon. Hidayat Nur Wahid, the Deputy Speaker of the Council, currently on a working visit to the Kingdom of Morocco.

The delegation of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Council consisted of Hon. Fadel Muhammad, Deputy Speaker of the Council, Mr. Ma’ruf Cahyono, Secretary-General of the House, and other officials and administrative officers.

The talks between the two parties, which took place in the presence of the Indonesian Ambassador to Rabat, H.E. Hasrul Azwar, focused on commending the excellent, deep-rooted cultural and historical ties, discussing the means to reinforce parliamentary cooperation ties between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Republic Indonesia, and other questions of mutual interest.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami highlighted the excellent parliamentary ties linking the Kingdom of Morocco and the Republic of Indonesia. In the same respect, he noted the success of the 144^th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which was a huge opportunity to hold bilateral and multilateral meetings with his counterparts, the Speakers of other parliaments participating in the Assembly that took place in Bali, Indonesia. The Speaker of the House also recalled the excellent relations linking the two countries with common religious, cultural, and historical roots.

In his presentation of the Moroccan parliamentary experience, the Speaker underscored the importance of parliamentary diplomacy and its role in dialogue, communication, and exchange of experiences and expertise, to meet the pressing needs that have imposed themselves on the national, regional, and international parliamentary agenda, such as health, climate change, renewable energies, innovation in education, digital transition, counter-terrorism, combat against hate speech, and migration.

For his part, Hon. Hidayat Nur Wahid and his entourage thanked the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the reception. In their statements, they shed light on the progress of the Indonesia-Morocco relations and the religious and thought convergence that characterizes them. Then, the Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian People's Consultative Council presented the peculiarity of the parliamentary and representative system in Indonesia and the prerogatives of the People's Consultative Council.

After that, he proposed the creation of a parliamentary forum that would initially gather the OIC Member States without being a substitute to the existing parliamentary organizations or gatherings. Conversely, the forum would have clear goals for reinforcing dialogue and exchanging experiences and expertise. On the same matter, Hon. Hidayat Nur Wahid noted that he had opened discussions and consultations regarding the forum with several speakers of parliaments of Muslim States, hoping that the forum would be established by next October.

In response to the proposal regarding the creation of a parliamentary forum, the Speaker of the House of Representatives noted several positive aspects of the proposal, particularly the opening of new spaces to explore unicameral, bicameral, and multicameral parliamentary experiences. The forum would also allow debate, discussion, and exchange of experiences and expertise, without impacting the competencies and functions of the existing continental, regional and international parliamentary organizations. Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami called for deepening consultation and debate on the proposal of creating a parliamentary forum for it to be built on solid foundations.

The reception by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, of the Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian People's Consultative Council, Hon. Hidayat Nur Wahid and his entourage was also a chance to have a closer look at the Moroccan and Indonesian parliamentary experiences, the political institutions of the two countries, in addition to the developments in bilateral and multilateral parliamentary affairs.