13/12/2017 (Global Indonesian Voices (GIVnews.com)) - Paris, GIVnews.com – A visiting Indonesian minister has strongly warned the French government about a possible disruption of bilateral relation if France continues its palm oil negative campaigns that lead to negative perception in European countries.

“There is an important thing that I would want to convey to the French government, which is relevant to Indonesia’s palm oil. The palm oil shall be acceptable. If France continues refusing (palm oil), bilateral relation between Indonesia and France could be threatened,” Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said in Paris on Tuesday (12/12) as reported by Mediaindonesia.com.

The Indonesian official was speaking at the Indonesian embassy in Paris, in which he witnessed the signing of three Letters of Intent (LoI) between Indonesia’s state electricity firm PT PLN and three independent power producers (IPP) from France namely Pace, Equis Energy and Aquo. The event took place during the Paris international conference on Renewable Energy Companies Committed to Climate.

Minister Jonan reminded that French oil and gas giant Total Fina Elf, which has a strong presence in Indonesia, is developing biofuel by using palm oil as its material. In addition, during his tenure as minister of transportation, Indonesia also bought aircrafts manufactured by Airbus.

“Please raise this issue before your government. The minister is quite popular here in France, isn’t he,” Minister Jonan said. It is believed that Jonan was referring to French Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot, who was a journalist and an environment activist, to seriously handle the palm oil issue.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s largest palm oil producers and exporters, are still struggling to push the European Union to stop its strict control over their palm oil exports to the region. Over the years, negative campaigns against palm oil imports from the two countries have continued to intensify in the EU.

Arguing that palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia had caused deforestation and severe forest degradation, the European Parliament issued in April of this year a resolution that called the EU to phase out the use of vegetable oils, including palm oil, in biodiesel by 2020.

Currently, major buyers of Indonesia’s palm oil include India, China, Pakistan, Netherlands, Malaysia, Egypt, and Bangladesh.