Jakarta – The Foreign Ministry has agreed to settle the Rp 6.5 billion (US$750,000) parking fine bill incurred since 2002 by Indonesian diplomats in New York City.

"The [amount] of fines over the years since 2002 is around US$750,000 and it has been decided to settle this," Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said on Friday. He added that part of the fines had already been paid.

He further said that the decision to pay fines incurred before 2002 was still awaiting agreements made by other foreign envoys with New York City's administration. "We have to respect other UN member states in New York," he added, as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

Indonesia owes the New York City administration the third largest amount of parking fines at US$750,000. The Indonesian government has been allotted one parking space by the New York administration, although there are around 35 diplomatic envoys based in the city.