Side meetings arranged for Habibie at ASEM
Side meetings arranged for Habibie at ASEM
By K. Basrie
LONDON (JP): The Indonesian Embassy here has arranged a series
of bilateral meetings for Vice President B.J. Habibie with
several Asian and European leaders when they gather here next
week.
Ambassador Rahardjo Jamtomo told a group of visiting
Indonesian journalists Monday that arrangements were made for
Habibie to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, French President Jacques Chirac and
leaders from China, Malaysia and Japan.
The bilateral meetings will be held on the sidelines of the
Second Asia-European Meeting (ASEM) on April 2-April 4, Rahardjo
said.
Habibie, the technology czar who was elected vice president
this month, will be making his debut in his new capacity at an
international summit here next week.
President Soeharto, 76, has expanded the task of the vice
president to include representing him in various international
forums, including the ASEM, the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. In the
past, Soeharto attended most of the summits.
The inaugural ASEM was held in Bangkok in 1996. The forum was
then seen as a means of promoting economic cooperation between
the two regions and for Asia as a balancing factor given the
increasing pull of trans-Pacific economic ties.
The vice president is also scheduled to meet with former
British prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher, whom Rahardjo
described as "an old friend of Habibie".
The Indonesian delegation will include Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali Alatas and several director generals, Rahardjo said,
adding that budgetary constraints limited the size of the
contingent.
He expressed concern at the poor showing of Indonesian media
in covering the important event, noting that only one Indonesian
TV crew had applied for media accreditation.
Also in the Indonesian delegation will be Radius Prawiro, a
former economic minister assigned by President Soeharto to help
resolve the mountain of unpaid offshore debts of Indonesian
companies. "I guess you know what his role will be," Rahardjo
said.
The summit will focus on the economy, including discussing the
economic crisis affecting Indonesia and other Asian countries,
Rahardjo said.
The summit is also expected to come up with a proposal for a
common fund to assist Indonesia's economic recovery, a plan to
support the rupiah's exchange rate and a solution to the
corporate debt problem, he said.
In the run-up to the summit, Rahardjo said he had also met
with British companies with investments in Indonesia to discuss
the current economic crisis. "They have all pledged to stay in
Indonesia. So we have nothing to worry about," he said.
The ambassador cited British Aerospace and British Gas among
the largest British investors in Indonesia.