Turkmenistan's wish to joined NAM hailed

Turkmenistan's wish to joined NAM hailed

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's President Soeharto has expressed his full support, as chair of the 111-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), for Turkmenistan's wish to join the movement.

As reported by Antara from the Turkmenistan capital city of Ashgabat, Soeharto gave the endorsement during a meeting with Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov yesterday.

"We're just waiting for the procedures to be completed," said Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas.

Following the meeting, Soeharto and Niyazov signed an economic cooperation declaration which will function as an umbrella agreement for future cooperation between the two countries.

President Soeharto ended yesterday his 13-day tour of four countries which took him to Germany, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. He is scheduled to arrive back here this morning at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, East Jakarta.

Soeharto's visit to the three Central Asian republics proceeded smoothly, in sharp contrast to his stay in Germany, where he was met by a number of demonstrations.

During an earlier meeting between the two presidents on Tuesday, Niyazov said that his country's foreign policy was neutral but positive, according to Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono

"President Soeharto straight away expressed his support for such a foreign policy," Moerdiono said.

He added that such a stance was akin to the message contained in the Indonesian Constitution: to promote world order based on peace and social justice.

The two presidents also decided to explore alternative transportation routes between their two countries.

"We are quite far from Turkmenistan so we have to find other routes through third parties to ensure a smooth line of transport, especially to support trade between the two countries," Moerdiono said.

He said that the first step was for the private sector in each country to familiarize their counterpart with the kind of products they would be able to trade through Iran, Pakistan or China.

Turkmenistan has already offered Indonesian businesses the opportunity to cultivate land for cotton cultivation and has provided assurances that the final products could be sold there or in Indonesia. (mds)