Ministers of EU, ASEAN to begin meeting today

JAKARTA (JP): Ministers of European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are to start a three-day dialog on economic and political cooperation, in the German city of Karlsruhe today.

German Ambassador to Indonesia Karl Walter Lewalter said yesterday that there will be at least five issues to be discussed in the dialog forum, including economic cooperation, environmental protection, science and technology, national development and political cooperation.

"The ministerial meeting, which is held every two years, will also be followed by a business forum to involve entrepreneurs from the two regions who are to explore business cooperation," Lewalter said as quoted by Antara news agency at a breakfast meeting here yesterday.

Lewalter, who was accompanied by French Ambassador to Indonesia, Dominique Girard, and the vice chairman of the European Commission's Representative, Jan de Fries, said that it will be the first time that the business forum has been adjoined to the regular ASEAN-EU meeting since it was introduced in 1980.

"Some 200 business people of the ASEAN and EU countries are expected to meet and explore business cooperation possibilities during the two-day ministerial meeting," he said.

He added that the ministerial forum will also discuss the role of the private sector in prompting trade and investments in the two regions.

"The trade volume between the two regions has currently reached US$58 billion, up fourfold compared to that of 1980," Lewalter said.

Political issue

Responding to a question on Indonesia's East Timor province, Lewalter said that the issue would not be on the agenda of the ASEAN-EU ministerial meeting.

The ministries will only discuss political issues in the context of regional and international development, instead of focusing on the bilateral matter of Indonesia and Portugal, he said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, while EU comprises of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Greek, Spain, Denmark, France, Britain and Ireland.

Lewalter said the ministerial meeting will involve the discussing of the Spratly dispute and the development of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Girard meanwhile said that EU countries have the same commitment of seeing the issue of East Timor resolved on the basis of human rights.

"EU countries' view on East Timor is not influenced by the presence of Portugal in EU," he said. (fhp)