RI hosts first regional ministerial meeting
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia will host the first ministerial meeting of the six- countries of the Southwest Pacific region in Yogyakarta starting Friday in a bid to improve economic and security cooperation in the region.
Complementing its 35-year active role in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), Jakarta considers this is the time to build another regional forum involving countries in the Southwest Pacific to strengthen peace in the region.
Indonesian foreign affairs minister Hassan Wirayuda said on Tuesday that the ministers from the participating countries would explore the possibilities of enhancing political and economic cooperation between their countries.
"As neighboring countries in the Southwest Pacific region, it will be beneficial to discuss common interests affecting the region," Hassan said.
"It is important to foster closer relations with other neighboring countries after 35 years during which we have been mainly focused on ASEAN, while we also have so many other neighbors," he added.
The meeting will be participated in by foreign ministers from six countries, Indonesia, as the initiator, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the newly born state of East Timor.
At the end of the meeting, the ministers will adopt a joint statement, which will cover both economic and security issues.
The economic issues will include increasing trade flows among participating countries, while the political issues will cover terrorism and transnational crime.
The idea of establishing the Southwest Pacific forum was first mooted by former president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000, with the first senior officials' meeting being held last June in Bali.
In his report to the House of Representatives, Hassan said the forum provided a vehicle for maintaining dialog with the new state of East Timor, which had yet to decide whether it should be part of the Southeast Asian countries or the Pacific countries.
Another objective of the forum was to express Jakarta's strong desire to address the many security issues in the region.