UNAS to host seminar on Bandung summit

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the private National University (Universitas Nasional, or UNAS) will host a seminar on the upcoming Asian-African Summit, the organizers said in Jakarta.

The seminar, titled The Revitalization of the Bandung Spirit: Toward Asia-Africa's New Strategic Partnership, will give the public an opportunity to comment on the April summit. The seminar will also be used to look for a foreign policy concept to return Indonesia to a place of prominence in international politics during the globalization era.

The one-day seminar will be held on Wednesday on the UNAS campus in South Jakarta.

Robi Nurhadi, a lecturer at UNAS and the chairman of the organizing committee, said the seminar would be attended by representatives from 24 Asian and African countries, intellectuals and students.

"We have received confirmation from 12 ambassadors that they will attend the seminar," Robi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Indonesia will host the Asian-African Summit from April 21 to April 23 in Jakarta and Bandung. The summit will mark the jubilee of the historic Bandung Conference in 1955.

Mangasi Sihombing from the foreign ministry and Roeslan Abdulgani, who chaired the organizing committee for the Bandung Conference, will speak at the seminar.

The Bandung Conference was held in April 1955. It was attended by leaders of Asian and African countries in an effort to enhance South-South cooperation and to support independence movements in a number of countries.