Jakarta. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the Merdeka Palace on Wednesday morning (23/11) to discuss bilateral partnership.

In a joint press conference after the meeting, Rutte said the Netherlands will return thousands of Indonesian cultural artifacts kept by the Dutch since colonial times.

"I presented to Mr. President a keris from our collection in Delft. As many as 1,500 artifacts will be brought home to Indonesia; this keris is the first one," Rutte told Jokowi.

According to Rutte, the decision to return the Indonesian artifacts is meant to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Jokowi's diplomacy since he took office in 2014 has also been oriented toward a stronger partnership with the Netherlands.

Earlier, Jokowi invited Rutte to a Veranda Talk — a more casual meeting with special guests at the palace's backyard terrace, a new custom started by the president.

"I am pleased that [the prime minister] brought along three ministers and 200 Dutch businessmen. It shows they can't wait to invest in Indonesia," Jokowi said.

Jokowi went to the Netherlands in April, the first visit by an Indonesian president to its former colonial master in the past 16 years.

The last Indonesian president to visit the Netherlands was Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000.