VP to visit India in March: President

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)