All ASEAN leaders have arrived for Summit

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.