Indonesian FM opens senior officials meeting for Asian- Africa Conference

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi opened here on Sunday a Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) as part of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Asian- Africa Conference (AAC).

The minister opened the meeting in Jakarta's lavish convention center that would facilitate all related activities and events in the capital.

Retno said that expanding the South-South Cooperation by embracing development partners would be more effective in addressing goals of the intra-regional cooperation framework.

"We will not stop in South-South Cooperation. That's why we invite development partners, making it called South-South Triangular Cooperation (SSTC)," she said.

The 60th AAC would also feature business summit that would be participated by CEOs of Asian and African firms. The leaders' summit would be held at the weekend in Bandung, West Java.

Retno added that Indonesia is very committed to developing the SSTC as it has established a particular national coordination team assigned to address the development affairs.

Since 2010 Indonesia has provided 400 capacity-building training programs, constituted by more than 4,400 people from 99 Asian, African and Latin American countries.

"Growing together is a must, let us make the SSTC as the tools to develop together. One day we will see that SSTC will not only narrow the development gap among countries, but most importantly it would further create world peace and prosperity," she said.

Indonesia Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said 31 leaders have confirmed their attendance at the 60th AAC.

"It was 32 as of yesterday, but South African leader called off his confirmation due to security issue at home," Nasir told Xinhua, adding that a total of 89 countries would participate in the event aimed at expanding and strengthening the South-South Cooperation.