RI, South Africa agree to hold Asia-Africa meet at birthplace
RI, South Africa agree to hold Asia-Africa meet at birthplace
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Kuala Lumpur
Inspired by a similar event almost five decades back, the Asian
African Sub-regional Organization Conference (ASROC) jointly
organized by Indonesia and South Africa in Bandung in April will
seek creative measures to rebuild partnership between the two
continents.
In their bilateral talks here on Tuesday, Indonesian President
Megawati Soekarnoputri and South African President Thabo Mbeki
discussed the preparatory steps for the meeting.
"The conference will focus on developing a new partnership
between Asia and Africa as part of our efforts to strengthen
cooperation between the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) countries,"
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said after
the bilateral meeting.
The Bandung conference will coincide with the 47th anniversary
of the Asia-Africa conference, which was held at the same place.
No less than 20 countries will be invited to the event, although
no specific date has not been set for it.
Initiated by noted leaders, including Indonesian president
Sukarno, who is Megawati's father, and Egyptian president Gamal
Abdul Nasser, the Asia-Africa conference led to the establishment
of NAM.
Hassan said that the Asia-Africa forum would return to the
West Java capital of Bandung in memory of the conference almost
50 years ago.
A follow-up meeting will be held in Johannesburg in 2004.
It was Megawati who proposed the idea of bringing back the
Asia-Africa spirit during the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) summit last year, when she stressed the
importance of reviving cooperation between the two continents,
which many consider to be unfruitful.
Hassan further disclosed that Megawati will actively
participate in the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC)
informal consultative meeting on Wednesday, which will be
attended by 50 out of 59 members of the organization.
"The informal meeting is set to discuss issues of common
interest, for the Islamic countries to close ranks regarding the
crisis in Iraq," the minister said, adding that an OIC emergency
summit will be held in Qatar on March 5.
Megawati has been invited by Qatar Sultan Sheik Abdulla bin
Khalifa Al-Thani to attend the summit in Doha. A presidential
source said that Megawati would leave for Qatar on March 2.
On Tuesday, Megawati also held bilateral meetings with Sri
Lanka President Chandrika B. Kamaratunga and Vietnam President
Tran Duc Luong.
The President is slated to return to Indonesia on Wednesday,
after attending the OIC informal meeting.