Soeharto to attend Islamic nations summit
Soeharto to attend Islamic nations summit
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is to attend the first summit
of eight predominantly Islamic developing countries, known as the
D-8, in Turkey on June 15, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono
announced yesterday.
The president will leave for Istanbul on June 13 and return
home June 16. He will be accompanied by Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali Alatas, Moerdiono, senior economist Widjojo
Nitisastro, and ambassador-at-large Nana Sutresna.
The D-8 groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Iran, Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey. It was proposed by Turkish Prime
Minister Necmettin Erbakan during a meeting with Soeharto in
Jakarta, last August.
"The conference aims to promote social and economic
cooperation among the member countries," Moerdiono said after
meeting with Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential office.
"The president will emphasize the importance of poverty
alleviation programs because poverty is the most basic problem
facing developing countries," Moerdiono said.
Soeharto will also propose the need for closer cooperation in
the technology sector among the members.
"Even though our technology is not as sophisticated as that in
industrialized countries, closer cooperation is needed to
strengthen our position," Moerdiono quoted Soeharto as saying.
Erbakan initially proposed that the D-8 should group only
Islamic countries or predominantly-Moslem countries.
"But later the eight foreign ministers decided that membership
should not be based on religion but on the size of population,"
said Nana, who accompanied Moerdiono at the meeting.
Membership is open to countries with populations of more than
40 million. "Malaysia (which has a population of about 24
million) is an exception; it is regarded as a prominent
developing country," he said.
The one-day summit is to be preceded by a senior officials
meeting and a foreign ministers meeting.
Attending the summit is the only purpose of Soeharto's trip,
Moerdiono said. (06)