President Hu to attend Asian-African meeting

President Hu to attend Asian-African meeting

The Jakarta Post, Beijing

Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit Indonesia next year to
attend the 50th anniversary of the Asian-African conference in
Jakarta, says a top Chinese official here.

"President Hu Jintao is scheduled to make an official visit to
Indonesia next year to attend the anniversary of the Asian-
African congress," Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei told visiting
Indonesian journalists at the Foreign Ministry Office on
Thursday.

Besides attending the anniversary, Hu was also expected to
hold talks with newly-elected Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono as a follow up of their recent meeting, he said. Hu and
Susilo met on the sidelines of the recent Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Santiago, Chile.

Wu said that Hu had a "very fruitful" talk with Susilo at the
meeting.

"The two leaders had agreed to forge a strategic partnership
at the meeting and agreed to hold a follow-up meeting to discuss
the details of the partnership," he said.

Wu described the talks on the partnership as a "very
important" development in Sino-Indonesian relations.

China, he said, has always considered its relationship with
Indonesia to be a very important one.

"China has a long tradition of good relations with Indonesia
and Indonesia has played a very important role in ASEAN," he
said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
nations.

The anniversary of the Asia-Africa conference is slated to be
held in Jakarta and Bandung from April 21-23 next year. It is
understood that Susilo is also working on a possible visit to
Beijing next February.