Asian and African nations agreed Tuesday to enhance cooperation in eight areas, including counterterrorism and food and energy security amid rising concerns over radicalism and food shortages.
Senior officials from 58 Asian and African countries met for two days in Jakarta under the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP) forum, which held its first summit in 2005 in Jakarta. Indonesia and South Africa co-chaired the meeting that kicked off on Monday.
The meeting was closed Tuesday with the declaration of "Jakarta Statements", in which participating countries agreed to focus on eight specific areas.
They cover cooperation on counterterrorism, transnational crime, food and energy security, small and medium enterprises, tourism, university networks and gender equality as well as women's empowerment.
Participating countries also agreed to increase their efforts toward hosting capacity building programs for Palestine, which has attracted concern over its stalled peace process.
Indonesia has committed to training around 1,000 Palestinians from 2008-2013. Jakarta has involved private institutions to organized various training programs for the Palestinian people.
Director general for Asia Pacific and African Affairs Hamzah Thayeb told reporters after the meeting that both Asia and Africa had pledged to work together closely in the eight focus areas.
"Not only in economy, but also in politics, as both are closely related to each other. Indonesia has also pledged to help train Somalians for capacity building. We will discuss further details about this in the future," he said.
South Africa's deputy director general of Asia and the Middle East Jerry Matjila said Asia and Africa had agreed to further develop an institutional framework to build a bridge between both.
"We would like to translate the solidarity among Asian and African countries into economic and development cooperation... We already have eight focus areas and as we move into those areas, we begin to develop programs. We discuss what Indonesia can do and what Africa can do for a better future for all," he said.
NAASP will hold its second summit next year in South Africa.
JP/Lilian Budianto
