Chirac's envoy meets Soeharto for G-7 inputs
Chirac's envoy meets Soeharto for G-7 inputs
JAKARTA (JP): A special envoy of French President Jaques Chirac, Bruno Durieux, yesterday met with President Soeharto here to seek inputs for the upcoming Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in Lion, France, next month.
Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told journalists that Durieux, during his meeting with Soeharto, presented Chirac's view that the upcoming G-7 meeting should provide a clear direction for the current globalization process.
"This globalization process should be given a positive direction so that it will benefit all parties and countries. This includes not only developed, but also developing countries," Moerdiono quoted Durieux as saying.
He added that Soeharto supported Chirac's argument and suggested that developed and developing countries form partnerships to tackle existing and future problems.
"In the spirit of partnerships, there will be no room for exploitation of the weak by the strong, of developing countries by developed," Moerdiono quoted Soeharto as saying.
For the proposed partnerships, Soeharto suggested that developed countries help finance the South-South cooperation currently pursued by Indonesia to empower developing countries, which are mostly located in the southern hemisphere.
During his visit here, Durieux also met with Coordinating Minister for Economy and Finance Saleh Afiff, Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo and Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad.
"Developed countries are beginning to realize that in this era of economic integration and globalization, they alone will not be able to tackle all the problems," Mar'ie told journalists after receiving Durieux at his office here yesterday.
Mar'ie said he had received letters from his counterparts in the G-7 which also requested inputs for the upcoming meeting.
Besides the G-7 meeting, Mar'ie said he and Durieux also discussed matters related to the unfinished negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, including those on maritime transports, telecommunications and finance. (rid)