Habibie to attend ASEM

JAKARTA (JP): Vice President B.J. Habibie will attend the forthcoming Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in London early next month, a government official said yesterday.

This visit will be the Vice President's second overseas trip in two weeks, as he is already scheduled to pay an official visit to Tokyo on Wednesday.

"The President has assigned Pak Habibie to assist him in international forums," the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

In his speech before announcing his new cabinet lineup Saturday, Soeharto said that Habibie would assist him in international forums such as the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Islamic Conference, the Asia-Europe Meeting and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Habibie will arrive in Tokyo Wednesday and stay until Friday. He is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, top bankers, and industrialists.

"We are deeply proud with Habibie's choice to visit Japan as his first international performance," a Japanese diplomat said last week.

On March 5, British Junior Foreign Minister Derek Fatchett conveyed to President Soeharto an invitation from Prime Minister Tony Blair to attend the meeting.

During his visit here, Fatchett said that the current economic turmoil in Southeast Asia and East Asia would likely become the major agenda of the summit.

In the coming three-day meeting in London, Habibie will also likely face Portugal's maneuver to raise the East Timor issue.

The United Nations still regards Portugal the administering power in the province, which joined Indonesia as its 27th province in 1976. (prb)