Belgian FM arrives in Jakarta on 3-day visit

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht arrived in Jakarta on Friday for a three-day visit to hold talks with Indonesian leaders and visit tsunami-hit Aceh.

"During his stay in Jakarta, Minister De Gucht will meet with Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and State Minister of National Development Planning Sri Mulyani," the Belgian embassy in Jakarta said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian foreign ministry's director of information and media Lutfi Rauf said that De Gucht would meet Hassan on Saturday morning at the ministry.

De Gucht will also visit Meulaboh in Aceh on Sunday to inspect the work being done by the Belgian First Aid and Support Team or B-FAST along with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF)-Belgium, a humanitarian non-governmental organization.

The B-Fast team -- which consists of personnel from the Belgian Defense forces, Home Affairs and Red Cross -- brought tents, generators, vehicles, food, stoves and medicine to Meulaboh.

The team, which has been in Aceh since Jan. 21, has contributed to the reinforcement of the United Nations base camp in Meulaboh and provided help to the towns of Calang and Krueng Sabe.

Last month, the Belgium government donated 30 million euros (US$39 million) to help thousands of tsunami victims in Asia. This included 15 million euros of emergency humanitarian aid and the remaining 15 million euros for reconstruction.

The Belgian public also raised 1.67 million euros in donations for tsunami victims.

Under the emergency humanitarian aid operation, Belgium sent a plane-load of humanitarian aid to Medan, North Sumatra and provided 740,000 euros for the B-Fast team in Aceh. It contributed another 1.37 million euros for the defense operations in Aceh and Sri Lanka.