VP to visit India in March: President

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Sunday that Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri would visit India in March to enhance bilateral relationships between the two countries.

"Ibu Megawati will visit India in March. This is very important as we need closer ties between the two nations and to further strengthen relations between developing countries," Abdurrahman said.

The President was speaking in front of tens of thousand of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) supporters at the commemoration of the party's 28th anniversary.

His remarks came as Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was spending his last day in Indonesia in Bali. His five-day visit to Indonesia was the first to have been made by an Indian prime minister over the past 14 years.

Abdurrahman also expressed the need to build stronger ties with China.

"It is because we have to show our identity (as Asian people). We can achieve that if Indonesia, China and India can work together with financial and marketing assistance form Singapore and Japan," Abdurrahman said.

The President said developing nations should cooperate between themselves, without the mediation of other nations.

"We should not be afraid, we are the majority of nations in this world ... we should not be afraid of any nation," he said.

The President was quick to add that such a move did not imply that Indonesia would distance itself from other countries or build new alliances against the United States as the remaining super power.

During Vajpayee's visit, Indonesia and India signed several agreements including an exchange of military instructors and arms sales.

India is known as one of the world's leading arms producers.

Indonesia, in the past few years, has had great need to replenish its old arms after the U.S. restricted its arms sales to the country.(dja)