Indonesia dispatches humanitarian aid to Myanmar's Rakhine state
Jakarta - Indonesia on Thursday sent ten shipping containers laden with humanitarian aid to Myanmar's restive Rakhine state, home to the country's Muslim Rohingya minority.
The aid includes instant food, baby food and clothing items, according to a statement from Indonesia's Cabinet Secretary.
"These are the goods that they requested after Foreign Minister (Retno Marsudi) held talks with the authority in Myanmar," President Joko Widodo said during the aid's official sendoff at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok Port.
Widodo said he hoped the aid would be accepted as a gesture of goodwill to restore peace, security and stability in Rakhine.
The move comes after foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi inYangon on December 12 to discuss the situation in the troubled area.
After the meeting in Yangon, Marsudi flew to Dhaka to meet her Bangladeshi counterpart, Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali.
The two ministers also visited Cox's Bazar in south-eastern Bangladesh where Rohingya have been taking refuge in two camps bordering Myanmar's Rakhine state.
