Indonesia to invite donor countries to attend AAS

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Indonesia will invite a number of heads of government of the world's major donors countries to attend the upcoming Asian- African Summit (AAS), the ministry of foreign affairs said on Friday.

The donor countries that have been invited to the summit include the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland.

The ministry's director for African affairs Bali Moniaga said that the invitations were signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would be sent next week.

"We will invite them as observers to attend the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta because we don't want the summit being exclusively for the Asian and African (countries). We must cooperate with the international community, particularly developed nations," he said.

"What we want to say is that we need support from all parties. We want the donor countries to support our programs," Bali said.

He said that the idea to invite the heads of the developed countries came from Indonesia and South Africa, the hosts of the summit.

"The plans which will be made by the Asian and African leaders at the summit, of course, cannot be carried out without the support and the involvement of the international community," he admitted.

The summit, believed to be one of the biggest meetings of this century involving 105 member countries in Asia and Africa, will be held from April 22 to April 23 in Jakarta.

Some 70 heads of the states/governments of the two continents are expected to attend the summit. The organizers have also invited 21 international organizations and 18 sub-regional organizations.

In addition, said Bali, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had also expressed his readiness to convey the results of the summit to a meeting of industrialized countries.

"The Prime Minister has been ready to bring the aspirations of the Asian-African countries to be discussed at the upcoming G-8 meeting," he elucidated.

Bali also explained that some donor countries had actively participated since the Asian-African Sub-Regional Organizations Conference (AASROC) held in July 2003 in Bandung.

The first AASROC, aimed to revive the "Spirit of Bandung" (the original meeting locale 50 years ago) between the two continents, was attended by delegates from 36 countries and 22 sub-regional international organizations.

The second conference was held in Durban, South Africa, last year and attended by representatives of 10 countries and 6 organizations with "observer" status.

Senior officials of the two continents will gather in Jakarta from March 30 to March 31 to prepare the ground for the summit.

At the Bandung conference in 1955, 29 country delegations from the two continents were present.

The delegation of the 25 members of the Non-Alignment Movement from other continents are also expected to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, West Java, on April 24.