Asian-African Ministers Begin Meeting in Bandung

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Asian-African Ministers Begin Meeting in Bandung

Ministers from Asian and African nations met in Bandung, the capital of West Java Province, Indonesia on Tuesday, the first preparatory meeting before the Asian-African Summit in 2005 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Asian-African Conference.

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Ministers from Asian and African nations met in Bandung, the capital of West Java Province Indonesia on Tuesday, the first preparatory meeting before the Asian-African Summit in 2005 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Asian-African Conference.

Co-hosted by the governments of Indonesia and South Africa, the two-day meeting took place at the Merdeka Building, the historical building where governments of 29 Asian and African countries convened in 1955 to declare their full support of the principle of self-determination of peoples and nations.

The Asian-African Conference was held in the wake of the East-West rivalries in 1955, resulted in the "Ten Principles of Bandung" which underline respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations and recognition of the equality of all races and the equality of all nations, be they are large or small.

The Asian-African Conference in 1955 led to the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement, whose initial desire was rejection to becomeparts of East-West rivalries during the Cold War era.

Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri is slated to open the Asian-African Sub Regional Organizations Conference (AASROC). She introduced last year the idea of holding the conference to commemorate the 1955 conference, which was presided over by her father, first Indonesian President Sukarno.

Organizers have said the AASROC here will be attended by 33 ministers representing governing bodies, troika members and executive directors from 16 sub-regional organizations from Asia and Africa and 19 international observes.

Dialogue on Asian-African new strategic partnership will top the agenda to provide inputs for the 2005 summit.

"We need to build a strategic partnership, which we have allowed to lapse over the years," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told local media over the weekend. He added the AASROC should be more than a nostalgic meeting to remember the achievements of Sukarno.

The Asian-African Summit in 2005 also will be held in Bandung, 150 km south of Jakarta. Prior to the summit, a second preparatorymeeting will be held in South Africa in 2004.

The government has raised alertness with at least 2,500 security personnel being deployed to pacify the conference, following the discovery of an explosive device near the conferencevenue earlier on Sunday.

But local police said the discovery did not pose a significant threat to security in the city, saying the device was not even similar to bomb.

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