All ASEAN leaders have arrived for Summit
The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
Amid her preparations to chair the two-day ASEAN summit starting on Tuesday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri also received courtesy calls from several of her counterparts.
Her first visitor was Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. She then received Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. She spent 30 minutes with each of them. Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda accompanied her during the meetings.
Briefing reporters after the meeting with the Brunei leader, Hassan said the sultan had underlined his country's strong commitment to fighting terrorism, referring to Brunei's readiness to sign the Accession of Brunei to the Agreement of Information Exchange and Establishment of Communication Procedures on Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, with the Vietnamese prime minister, Megawati discussed the need to further step up the two countries' cooperation in agriculture, especially in the negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and in dealing with farm product transactions with developed countries like Japan so as to encourage them to import more products from the two countries.
In the first meeting between the two leaders after Jiabao was elected as prime minister late last year, they also exchanged views on a series of regional conflicts, such as North Korea and terrorism.
"We discussed how to strengthen and widen the cooperation between Indonesia and China," Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Li said.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the ninth Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, where China is attending the meeting as a dialog partner of the regional grouping.
"The Prime Minister briefed the President on the recent developments in the Korean peninsula and they indicated that there would be another meeting to try to settle the dispute peacefully," Indonesian Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said after the meeting.
The minister further added that this development showed the success of the efforts made by the Chinese government to help settle the nuclear crisis.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that President Megawati fully supported the ongoing efforts to end the nuclear crisis.
The two leaders also witnessed the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding on Chinese government grants and the provision of export credit for the supply of electrical equipment to Indonesia from China.
Earlier, the Indonesian President held separate meetings with Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.
In her meeting with the Sultan, the two leaders discussed the measures that could be taken to improve tourism and foreign investment in both countries.
Hassan said that during the meeting Brunei had also underlined its commitment to jointly fighting terrorism in the region with the country's accession to the agreement on information exchange, which was earlier signed by Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
"They noted the importance of sharing information to strengthen security cooperation in fighting terrorism," the Indonesian minister said after the meeting.
Brunei signed the agreement late on Sunday, on the sidelines of the meeting between ASEAN member countries foreign ministers.
With Vietnam, Hassan said that the two leaders had discussed the possibilities of further improving cooperation in trade matters, especially in dealing with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and developed countries like Japan.
Developing countries that mostly rely for their economic development on agriculture have repeatedly criticized the policies of many develop countries, which provide huge subsidies for their farmers.
The issue prevented an agreement being reached during the latest WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last month.