Ali Alatas to meet Kofi Annan

Ali Alatas to meet Kofi Annan

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas will, in
his capacity as new chairman of Group-77, meet with United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at UN headquarters in New
York in the second week of this month.

"The foreign minister will meet Kofi Annan in his capacity as
the new chairman of Group-77," Indonesia's permanent
representative at the United Nations, Ambassador Makarim
Wibisono, was quoted by Antara as saying in New York Tuesday.

Indonesia succeeded Tanzania as head of the group of 133
developing countries in 1998 but Tanzanian Foreign Minister J.
Kikwettea is scheduled to hand over the chairmanship to his
Indonesian counterpart on Jan. 12, 1998.

Indonesia was unanimously elected to head the group at the
21st ministerial meeting in New York on Sept. 26, 1997.

The chairman of the group is elected by turn every year from
the member countries of Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and
the Caribbean.

Unlike the Non-Aligned Movement, which is more of a political
grouping, Group-77 is an instrument for negotiation. The former
is more concerned with political affairs, the latter with
economic, financial and development matters.

NAM and Group-77 have a joint instrument called the Joint
Coordinating Committee for regular consultations to prevent the
overlapping of tasks and assignments.

According to Makarim, Alatas was also slated to meet the
president of the United Nations General Assembly, Hennadiy
Udovenko of the Ukraine.

While in New York, Alatas will inaugurate the Indonesian
Permanent Representative office building in New York which has
been renovated.

The plan to expand the building was drawn up in Oct. 1995, but
the actual work did not begin until July 14, 1996. (swe)