South Pacific Island nations to attend Asian-African Summit

South Pacific Island nations to attend Asian-African Summit

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The upcoming Asian-African Summit (AAS) will not be an
exclusive meeting for Asian and African countries as most of the
South Pacific Island nations (excluding Australia and New
Zealand) have been invited as full participants at the summit.

The Pacific Island nations that are invited to the summit
comprise Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New
Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tavalu and Vanuatu.

Director for African Affairs at the foreign ministry, Bali
Moniaga confirmed that the Pacific countries would have full
member status at the summit.

"The decision to invite the (Pacific) countries was based on a
list of countries that consists of the Asian group. This list was
provided by the United Nations. We used it (the UN data) to
determine participants from the Asian side," Bali told The
Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"We have received positive responses from these countries and
a number of heads of state have confirmed their attendance at the
summit," he said.

Australia and New Zealand were invited as observers, he added.

The government also invited developed nations such as the
United States, Britain, France, Germany and Canada as observers
to the summit.

Indonesia and South Africa, the initiators of the summit, sent
invitations to 104 countries of the two continents, 53 from Asia
and 51 from Africa.

The summit, to be held in Jakarta from April 22 to April 23,
was expected to launch a declaration on the New Asian-African
Strategic Partnership (NAASP).

The first Asian-African Conference was held in Bandung, West
Java from April 18 to April 24, 1955 and attended by 29 countries
(including the five sponsoring countries). The conference then
launched the Ten Principles of Bandung.

Many have stated that the principles issued 50 years ago were
still relevant today, despite some very different political
conditions.

According to Bali, more than half of the heads of state from
the two continents had confirmed their attendance to the summit,
which should provide important momentum to boost cooperation
among Asian and African countries.

"It is a good achievement, some 70 countries have already
confirmed their participation. More than half of the delegations
will be led by a head of state," he said.

The Indonesian government, which is said to be funding the
meeting by itself, earlier said that about 56 heads of
state/government had so far confirmed their participation in the
summit, while other countries might be represented by either a
vice president or key Cabinet minister.

Bali, who is also a member of the national organizing
committee of the summit, went to New York last week to announce
the results of the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), which was held
in Jakarta late last month.

"I briefed some 100 officials from Asian and African countries
in New York. I informed them about the results of the SOM because
many of the countries did not attend the meeting," he said.

The senior officials from dozens of Asian and African nations
are scheduled to meet again in Jakarta on April 19 to follow up
on their two-day meeting last month.

Showing its seriousness about making the summit success, the
government appointed two prominent diplomats, Ali Alatas and Nana
Sutrisno, as special envoys to invite leaders of the countries in
the two continents to come to the Summit.