President, Vice President to go abroad to boost ties
President, Vice President to go abroad to boost ties
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is set to visit the United
States, the European Union headquarters in Belgium, and Japan
during his official trip later this month in a bid to boost ties
with major countries.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie
announced here on Monday that the President and his entourage,
including businesspeople, will depart on May 24 for the eight-day
trip.
"It's big countries. The President has visited Malaysia and
Singapore. He has also visited Australia, so the next destination
is the United States and Japan, as the United Kingdom and France
are currently staging general elections," he told journalists
after a meeting with Susilo.
The President will also pay a visit to the European Union
headquarters in Brussels ahead of bilateral visits to member
countries sometime in the future, Aburizal added.
In the United States, Susilo is scheduled to meet United
States President George W. Bush, a number of other senior
government officials, legislators and businesspeople.
Economic issues will be the main agenda of the bilateral talks
between Susilo and Bush, apart from issues related to counter
terrorism and money laundering, Aburizal said.
During his visit to Tokyo, President Susilo will similarly
raise economic affairs, trade, investment and other bilateral
issues between the Indonesian and Japanese governments as well as
between the private sectors of both countries, where he is also
scheduled to meet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
State Minister of National Development Planning Sri Mulyani
Indrawati is expected to fly to the United States ahead of the
arrival of Susilo, to attend an event aimed at garnering more
support from American people for tsunami victims in Aceh.
Aburizal himself will leave for Tokyo on April 17 to meet his
counterpart for talks on economic affairs.
During the one-week trip, the President will bring along a
number of Indonesian businesspeople, mostly members of the
Indonesian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Kadin).
Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla is slated to make an
official visit to Singapore and Malaysia from Wednesday to
Saturday, aimed at following up on the results of Susilo's visit
to the two countries last month, Antara reported.
Vice Presidential Office press bureau head Evac C. Mintaredja
said Kalla is set to meet, among others, Singaporean Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and
Singaporean businesspeople, as well as Malaysian Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi and Malaysian businesspeople.
The vice president is also scheduled to hold separate dialogs
with Indonesians living in both countries.