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)