Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will attend the ASEAN Summit and the East Asian Summit which will be held in the Philippines next Sunday and Wednesday respectively, Foreign Affairs Minister Hasan Wirajuda said on Wednesday.

During the ASEAN Summit, leaders of the grouping would hear the report and recommendations made by a group of eminent persons on the formulation of a new ASEAN charter for possible adoption in 2007, Hassan was quoted by Antara news agency as saying in Bandung, capital of West Java province.

The ASEAN summit which always takes place in early December was an important forum in the process of implementing ASEAN reforms, he said.

ASEAN, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, will hopefully create a new life that can speed up the setting up of an ASEAN community targeted for 2015 instead of 2020 as expected by the ASEAN Summit that took place in Bali in 2003, the minister said.

Wirajudha also said 16 countries consisting of ASEAN's 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand would attend the East Asian Summit.

On the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Yudhoyono and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are scheduled to hold talks on a number of issues as a follow-up to a discussion held during the Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Hanoi last November.

Source: Xinhua