Yudhoyono set to take global role in US trip

Abdul Khalik ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania   |  Fri, 09/25/2009 12:16 PM  |  Headlines

With the Economist magazine lauding him as the only man able to lead Indonesia to prosperity, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived here Wednesday ready to offer solutions to the G20 summit before speaking to leading US scholars at Harvard University in Boston later in the week.

At a briefing shortly after leaving Jakarta, the President made it clear he would speak on global issues not only on behalf of Indonesia, but also the Islamic world and developing countries, at all the events he attended during his nine-day trip to the country.

As the two-day summit, which begins on Thursday, will take on the issue of climate change, prior to the Copenhagen meeting in December to discuss a new regime to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012, Indonesia, now seen as the one of its champions, will take center stage.

"The G20 host, President *Barack* Obama, has asked me to be the lead speaker in the session discussing the environment and climate change at the summit," Yudhoyono said. He said the world considered Indonesia to have been successful in laying the groundwork, at the UN climate conference in Bali, for future climate talks in Poznan, Poland, and in Copenhagen in December, as well as strengthening international efforts toward a new climate regime after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The G20 summit will be attended by leaders of the world's 20 largest economies. The G20 countries represents 85 percent of the world's economy and includes major developed and developing nations. Together with other developing countries, Indonesia will propose deeper reform of international financial institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank, to enable them to cope with the global economic turmoil and help the weaker economies deal with the crisis, while asking for more transparency in financial sectors.

"We will try to maintain the momentum of the global economic recovery while launching efforts to reform global financial structures and economy imbalances," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told The Jakarta Post on landing in Pittsburgh.

While at the summit, the President will hold bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

On Saturday, the President will try to woo more foreign investment when he meets with US businesspeople in Boston, before listening to management guru Michael E. Porter on how to raise Indonesia's competitiveness in the global market.

On Monday, the President will use a rare opportunity to deliver his point of view on issues ranging from US-Indonesia relations, the Middle East conflicts, Islam-Western world relations, how to combat terrorism and climate change.

"It is an opportunity for an Indonesian and a Muslim to speak to the US community and the world on global and strategic issues at the prestigious Harvard University so that there will be no more misunderstanding of Indonesia and the Muslim world," Yudhoyono said.

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