By Bernama,
Jakarta : Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would meet with President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Baroso on the sideline of the 7th ASEM meeting in Beijing to ask for the lifting of flight ban, Indonesian state spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said here Tuesday.
The 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit will be held in Beijing on Oct. 24-25.
Indonesia has been struggling to exit from the European Union ( EU) travel ban by improving its air safety standard after the group imposed the restriction for 51 Indonesian airliners to enter the EU member countries’ territory on July 6 last year following the rampant air accident that claimed hundreds of lives.
“There is a plan (for president Susilo) to meet with President of the European Commission Manuel Baroso in an effort to end the European Union flight ban,” Antara news agency quoted Dino as saying at a press briefing at the State Palace.
However, the spokesman said that it had not been determined yet the date of the meeting.
Earlier, President Susilo has told Baroso that the ban was not fair for Indonesia which rely much on air transport.
The EU extended the ban for Indonesia on its meeting on Nov. 28 last year after revoking its air travel restriction on the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and on the Blue Wing Airlines of Surinam.
Despite the archipelago country has attempted to boost air safety, some minor violation on air safety standard still occurred recently.
The country’s transport authorities have suspended and grounded a number of local carrier for lack of safety standard.
On Monday, two small accidents occurred in Surabaya and South Sulawesi. Local carriers of Merpati suffered flat tire in Hasanuddin airport in South Sulawesi and Wing Air tire was broken when landing in airport in East Java.