SBY welcomes Obama, Russian FM at East Asia Summit opening

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono officiated on Saturday in Nusa Dua, Bali, the sixth East Asia Summit, attended by the leaders of the 10 ASEAN member states as well as a number of world leaders, including US President Barack Obama.

“Welcome to the US President, Your Excellency President Barack Obama, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,” Yudhoyono said in his opening speech delivered in Indonesian, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The Indonesian President said the forum, which followed on from the ASEAN Summit, was expected to solve some of the problems faced by the participants, including the regional economic situation in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis.

He called for the world leaders in attendance to strengthen their partnership to address those problems.

“If we fail to cooperate, then we will fail to solve our fundamental problems,” Yudhoyono added.

He proposed four major topics to be discussed at the summit, namely: accelerating regional economic growth, increasing food and energy security, joint disaster mitigation efforts, and maintaining peace, stability and security in the region.

Leaders from a total of 18 nations participated in the sixth East Asia Summit, including Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

The US and Russia were attending the summit for the first time this year.