Soeharto, Rabin meet in New York

By Rikza Abdullah

NEW YORK (JP): President Soeharto and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin held a 30-minute meeting at the Waldorf Towers Hotel here on Saturday evening to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East.

"Prime Minister Rabin told President Soeharto about the latest developments in the Middle East, particularly those related to Palestine," Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told Indonesian reporters after the meeting.

Moerdiono refused to go into details of the discussion between the two leaders, who are both here to attend the three-day Special Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. The commemoration started on Sunday.

Indonesia, which opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other Arab land, has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

"The meeting between the two heads of government was a follow- up of their meeting in Jakarta two years ago," Moerdiono said.

Moerdiono said the meeting was based on a "rather sudden" request by the Israeli prime minister.

When asked whether the two leaders discussed bilateral issues between Indonesia and Israel, Moerdiono said: "That was my only explanation for you today. I appreciate your way of looking for information but that was it." Rabin was accompanied by three officials at the meeting.

Rabin held a secret meeting with Soeharto, who was then chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), in Jakarta in 1993. The visit was announced to journalists several hours after the Israeli prime minister had left Indonesia.

Soeharto handed over the NAM chairmanship to his successor President Ernesto Samper Pizano of Columbia at the movement's 11th summit meeting in the Colombian city of Cartagena last week.

Arafat

President of the Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat, told the summit that many complications had obstructed the precise and faithful implementation of the Palestinian- Israeli agreement, which was signed in Washington in 1993, before a new agreement was signed, also in Washington, recently.

"The accord we signed a few days ago in Washington at President Clinton's invitation is a second-stage agreement which will be followed by other agreements to complete the peace process on the basis of the land-for-peace formula and Security Council Resolution 242 and 338," Arafat said.

"This will take shape in light of negotiations starting in May 1996 on final status issues that had been deferred, such as Al- Quds al-Shareef, capital of our Palestinian state, the refugees and the permanent borders."

As-Quds is known outside the Moslem world as Jerusalem.

"We also reiterate that just and comprehensive peace in the region will not be achieved without tangible progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks," Arafat added.

Soeharto, while attending the Cartagena summit, met with Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, who expressed the hope that Indonesia supports its struggle to regain its rights from Israel.

Soeharto was quoted by Moerdiono as saying that Indonesia fully supports the struggle of the Palestinians and other Arabs to regain their rights.

World Bank

Before receiving the Israeli prime minister, Soeharto also held separate meetings with the president of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandanaraike Kumaratunga.

Moerdiono said Wolfensohn pledged that the World Bank, which now chairs the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI), will continue assisting Indonesia in financing its development projects.

The World Bank, in the last CGI meeting in Paris in July, made a commitment to provide a major part of the US$5.2 billion aid promised by the group for Indonesia this fiscal year.

Wolfensohn told Soeharto that the World Bank will pay serious attention to proposals on the reduction of the debt burdens of the world's least-developed countries.

Soeharto has on several occasions called for a reduction in the debt burdens of the world's poorest countries. He told the Cartagena summit that bilateral and commercial debts of a number of developing countries have already been reduced but that, up to now, there has been no possibility of reduce multilateral debts and that even rescheduling has not been possible.

Moerdiono said on Saturday that the Canadian prime minister and the Sri Lankan president had proposed improvements in their countries' economic and trade relations with Indonesia.

"Prime Minister Chretien will visit Indonesia in January, leading a delegation of hundreds of business people," Moerdiono said.

Indonesia's exports to Canada increased by 5.7 percent to US$3321.69 million last year from $204.17 million in 1993, while its imports from the country rose by 9.2 percent, from $496.77 million to $954.59 million.

Canada, as of the end of last year, is the 13th-largest foreign investor in Indonesia, with total cumulative investments of $1.07 billion for non-oil and non-financial projects.