More than 315 delegates from 34 East Asian and Latin American nations have gathered in Bali to attend the two-day sixth Foreign Ministers Meeting of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) due to begin on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa is reported to have been checking all the preparations and inspecting the facilities at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Nusa Dua until Wednesday evening to ensure that everything was in place for the meeting.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to have a collective courtesy meeting with the heads of delegations before the closing ceremony on Friday.

On the sidelines of his last inspection on Wednesday, Marty met with Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister David Velasquez Caraballo. Marty reiterated the importance of prioritizing cooperation in trade, energy, education and culture.

Caraballo expressed his nation'€™s appreciation for Indonesia'€™s sympathy and support on the death of president Hugo Chavez in March, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

As of Wednesday, two of the 36 FEALAC members states, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, had not confirmed their participation in the meeting which is being co-
hosted by Indonesia and Colombia.

FEALAC comprises 16 East Asian and 20 Latin American countries, which in total comprise 40 percent of the world'€™s population. Eight G20 countries are FEALAC members.

Foreign ministers from 13 member states; Argentina, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nicaragua, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines; have confirmed their attendance.

Thirteen other member states; namely Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam will be represented by their deputy foreign ministers.

Delegations from seven member states; Australia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama and Suriname; will be led by their ambassadors to Indonesia. While Paraguay has sent a senior official to
attend the meeting.

The FEALAC meeting in Bali will also be attended by ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh and a representative from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post and Antara news agency on Wednesday, Brazilian Deputy Foreign Minister Maria Edileuza Fontenele Reis said she had been impressed by Indonesia'€™s preparation for the meeting.

'€œBali is a nice venue for international meetings. You have excellent infrastructure and the organization is also superb. So we are very pleased to attend the meeting taking place here,'€ she said.

Reis added that Brazil aimed to bolster integration with its neighbors and strengthen its relations with its East Asian partners during the Bali meeting.

'€œIn East Asia, we have four of our biggest trading partners; China number one. Indonesia has a lot of investment from Brazil, including the nickel mining in Sulawesi,'€ she said, adding that there was still a great deal of untapped potential between the two regions.

According to the Foreign Ministry, trade between countries in the two regions accounts for 30 percent of total world trade with a combination of GDP reaching 34 percent of the world'€™s total GDP.

In the past three years, Indonesia has doubled its trading value with Latin America, recording almost US$245 million in trade in 2012, up from $128 million in 2010.

FEALAC was originally established as an informal forum to link Asian and Latin American countries. Founded in 1999 with the initial name of East Asia-Latin America Forum (EALAF) , FEALAC aims to promote cooperation, better understanding and political and economic dialogue between the regions in order to achieve more effective, cooperative and fruitful relations in all areas.

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