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.