Officials iron out summit declaration

Officials iron out summit declaration

Dwi Atmanta and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Senior officials at the Asian-African Summit agreed on Tuesday to
three draft declarations aimed at boosting solidarity and
cooperation among the nations of the two continents, officials
have said.

The three draft declarations are on a New Asian-African
Strategic Partnership (NAASP), a joint ministerial statement on a
plan of action for Asia-African cooperation and a joint statement
on the tsunami, earthquakes and other natural disasters. All
three are expected to be finalized and adopted during a
ministerial meeting on Wednesday.

Anil Sooklal, the deputy director general of the Asia
Department at the South African Department of Foreign Affairs,
told The Jakarta Post after the meeting that the areas of
cooperation would cover the intergovernmental, sub-regional
organization, and people to people levels.

"It's very encouraging that the draft declarations outline the
parameters of cooperation and what we would like to see coming
out of the partnership between Asia and Africa," said Sooklai,
who co-chaired the consultative meeting.

Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, the Indonesian co-chair of the
meeting, said the idea of discussing the tsunami issue during the
summit came from Indonesia, which was hit hardest by the
catastrophe last December.

"This is a new subject that we raised at the Senior Officials
Meeting. We believe that the two continents need to cooperate on
the handling of natural disasters," he said.

The nine-magnitude earthquake and killer tidal waves that
devastated Aceh and Nias Island also affected dozens of countries
around the Indian Ocean rim, killing over 170,000 people, mostly
in Indonesia.

As reconstruction in Aceh was getting underway, another major
earthquake rocked Nias in North Sumatra late in March, leaving
hundreds of people dead.

Sudjadnan said the NAASP declaration would be signed by the heads
of state/government at the summit and formally launched in
Bandung during the golden jubilee celebrations of the 1955 Asia-
Africa Conference on Sunday, while a joint heads of state
statement on the tsunami was expected to be issued on Saturday.

Around 90 ministers from Asian and African countries will
attend the ministerial meeting here on Wednesday, when the three
draft declarations are expected to be adopted. Some participating
countries will be represented by their ambassadors.

As of Tuesday, 94 countries and UN bodies, and 17
international organizations had confirmed their attendance at the
two-day summit, which will commence on Friday.

Ministers from Asian and African countries have met twice
during Asian-African Sub-Regional Conferences (AASROC) in Bandung
and Durban, South Africa, respectively, since the idea of
reinvigorating what has become known as "the spirit of Bandung"
was initiated by South African president Thabo Mbeki and former
president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2002.

The ministerial meetings, co-chaired by the foreign ministers
of South Africa and Indonesia, resulted in an agreement to forge
a new strategic partnership between the countries of the two
countries.