Indonesia-EU relations: Stage set for big leap in the year 2005.

(From The Jakarta Post)

Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous nation, and the world's most powerful regional grouping, the European Union (EU), opened a new chapter in their bilateral relations in 2004 by increasing their interaction on economic and political fronts.

Indonesia's trade with the Europe has been growing since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, a top EU official says.

"In 2003, the value of EU imports from Indonesia stabilized at around 10 billion euros (US$12.5 billion), confirming the trend of the last three years and representing a 40 percent increase," the first secretary of the EU delegation to Indonesia, Raffaele Quarto, told The Jakarta Post.

"This compares to the pre-crisis level EU exports to Indonesia, which were also relatively stable at around 4 billion euros, compared to the 7 billion euros in 1996."

The EU is Indonesia's second-largest trading partner after Japan …