Partnership the talk of Asia-Africa Summit

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.