12月13日付ジャカルタ・ポスト紙の「LETTER TO EDITOR」欄に，同月4日付同紙記事「RCEP is about ASEAN’s initiative, not China’s」に対する千葉大使による投書が以下のとおり掲載されました。
   
            With regard to the Dec. 4 article titled “RCEP is about ASEAN’s initiative, not China’s” by Mr. Rocky Intan, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the Government of Japan’s unwavering commitment to realize the Regional Comprehensive Economic partnership (RCEP).
            The 16 countries including India, under ASEAN centrality, have been proceeding with the RCEP negotiations for over seven years. I believe none of us intends to exclude India from the RCEP. In fact, the Joint Leader’s Statement on the RCEP announced on Nov. 4 in Bangkok that “India has significant outstanding issues, which remain unresolved. All RCEP Participating Countries will work together to resolve these outstanding issues in a mutually satisfactory way.” This collective effort should be seriously pursued and promoted.
            In the firm belief that the participation of India, an enormous emerging market, will maximize the potential of regional and global economic integration, Japan has been working to resolve these issues, in cooperation with ASEAN and other countries, and will further strengthen our efforts to do so.
        Japan is committed to playing a leading role towards the signing of the RCEP Agreement by all 16 countries in 2020.
 
関係リンク先：
・Insight: RCEP is about ASEAN’s initiative, not China’s（ジャカルタ・ポスト紙オンライン記事）
  https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2019/12/04/insight-rcep-is-about-aseans-initiative-not-chinas.html
・Letter to editor: Japan mission to ASEAN responds（ジャカルタ・ポスト紙オンライン記事）
  https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/12/13/letter-editor-japan-mission-asean-responds.html