RI to host meetings on ASEAN and ARF
RI to host meetings on ASEAN and ARF
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will host a series of senior officials' meetings this week in Yogyakarta from May 10 to May 13, the foreign ministry announced.
The event, which includes the ASEAN Special Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) SOM and the ASEAN SOM Retreat, is aimed at preparing the groundwork for the forthcoming 37th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in June 2004 in Jakarta, the ministry said in a statement sent to the The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Simultaneously, the ARF Ministerial Meeting will also be held in Jakarta.
Senior officials from the 10 ASEAN member countries and the other 13 ARF members are scheduled to participate.
The officials will discuss the ASEAN Security Community concept, terrorism, North Korean nuclear issues and the security in the Strait of Malacca during their four-day stay in Yogyakarta.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said in a press release that the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs will also attend the ARF meeting in Yogyakarta.
"James A. Kelly, United States Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, will visit Indonesia from May 9 to May 12 to attend the ARF and meet with senior Indonesian government officials," the statement said.
Kelly will meet with the Indonesian officials during a one-day stop in Jakarta on Monday before traveling on to Yogyakarta.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Friday that North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun will also attend the ARF meeting.
ASEAN launched the ARF in Bangkok about a decade ago to cope with the region's security issues such as the standoff on the Korean peninsula and more recently terrorism.
The ARF members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South and North Korea, China, India, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the European Union, Canada, the United States and Mongolia.