Mondale to convey U.S. 'grave concern' about RI
Mondale to convey U.S. 'grave concern' about RI
WASHINGTON (AFP): Former U.S. vice president Walter Mondale will express the Clinton administration's "grave concern" about Indonesia when he travels there next week, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said Thursday.
A White House spokesman on Thursday confirmed reports that Mondale would be going to Jakarta to meet President Soeharto and other high-ranking officials.
Mondale, who will be accompanied by senior officials from the Treasury and the State Department, leaves for Jakarta on Saturday and is expected to stay until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Mondale's mandate from Clinton, stressing political as well as economic issues, show how worried the world community about the situation in Indonesia.
"The situation in Asia in many ways has come together very significantly in the past couple of months," Summers said in a CNBC television interview.
"We've been gratified by the progress we've seen in Korea and Thailand. Certainly there are very important problems that remain in Indonesia."
As a result, Mondale will be carrying a message from President Bill Clinton "reflecting our very grave concern about the situation in Indonesia."
"The problems are of a quite broad sort, about the way in which economic policy is going to be managed going forward."
Indonesia is in the throes of its worst crisis since Soeharto came to power in 1966, with the collapse of the currency having crippled the economy, prompted mass layoffs, sent prices soaring and sparked widespread unrest.
Summers repeated Washington's opposition to Indonesia's planned establishment of a currency board to manage fluctuations in the national currency, the rupiah.
"Currency boards have their place, but they have to know their place," he said.
"There are many preconditions before a currency board is a viable arrangement."
Officials in both the Clinton administration and the International Monetary Fund have pressed Soeharto to stick to IMF reform measures as the best means of restoring confidence to his battered economy.