Partnership the talk of Asia-Africa Summit

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Leaders of Asia and Africa gathering for a summit here expressed support on Friday for a new strategic partnership, but made it clear it would not lead to an exclusive grouping.

The secretary-general of the summit's organizing committee, Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, said at least 29 participating heads of state or government had signed the draft declaration on the partnership before its official endorsement scheduled for Sunday, during a gathering in Bandung to commemorate the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference.

All of the leaders are expected to sign the declaration and a joint statement on tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters at the conclusion of their meeting on Saturday.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the cochair of the summit, said that despite the solidarity that had bound them for the past decades, Asian and African nations needed to work with the outside world in order to achieve their common goals.

"In today's international context, the real challenge for Asia and Africa is not about developing the power to confront, but the power to connect. Asia and Africa must connect with itself, but also with other international and regional groupings," Susilo said in his speech opening the Asian-African Summit on Friday.

He said that 50 years after Asian and African leaders gathered for their historic conference in Bandung, the two continents were now home to important regional and subregional organizations and had important bilateral and multilateral ties.

"Beyond Asia-Africa, in contrast with 1955, we now see a world much more sympathetic to our problems and eager to work and engage with us," Susilo said.

With their new strategic partnership, Asia and Africa should be at the forefront of the global cooperation to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, to promote just, democratic and harmonious societies, and to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, he said.

Asia and Africa represent three quarters of the world's population and over half of the members of the United Nations, but most of the countries are still struggling to eradicate poverty and illiteracy.

The President said that while the fight for independence had been largely accomplished by Asian and African nations, the two continents continued to face an uphill challenge to establish good governance.

"If Asia and Africa can learn anything from the past five decades, it is the success or failure of governance explains the success or failure of states. It also explains the success or failure of peace, the success or failure of development, the success or failure of nation-building," Susilo said.

In his opening statement, summit cochair South African President Thabo Mbeki underlined the need to use existing regional forums to expand cooperation between Africa and Asia.

"We have built some of the institutional mechanisms we need to enable us to act together to achieve our common goals," he said, citing the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as examples.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, meanwhile, acknowledged the importance of "a long-term, stable and substantive new type of Asian-African strategic partnership" that is responsive to the changing times.

"Their (Asia and Africa) development, needless to say, cannot be achieved without exchanges and cooperation with the other regions in the world," Hu said in his speech.

He specifically underlined the need for Asia and Africa to improve and promote North-South relations and cooperation.

North Korea said the new strategic partnership would strengthen South-South cooperation, allowing Asia and Africa to improve economic relations among developing nations.

"Our partnership means precisely a part of the process of expanding and developing South-South cooperation in all aspects between the two continents," Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, said.

While supporting the new partnership, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that every country in the world was part of a global economy. He said the globalized world was full of promise and opportunities, besides presenting challenges.