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everal African ambassadors to Indonesia hope that Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla can rekindle the spirit of the Asian-African Conference after the duo start their term of office on Oct. 20.

Zimbabwean Ambassador Alice Mageza said the conference, which was held in Bandung, West Java on April 18 to 24, 1955, was very important for Africa because during the conference, African countries and Indonesia represented a third force between the US-led Western bloc and the Soviet Union-led bloc in the Cold-War era.

'€œIndonesia has become our big brother. In 1955, we built a bridge [in the form of the conference] together. Why don'€™t we use the bridge [now, to improve our relations]?'€ she told The Jakarta Post recently.

The conference aimed to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and opposed colonialism.

It was initiated by Indonesia'€™s first president Sukarno, attended by representatives of 29 Asian and African countries '€” most of which were newly independent '€” and contributed to strengthening relations between African and Asian countries.

Mageza said Indonesia had played a strategic role in strengthening relations between Asia and Africa.

For example, Indonesia had contributed to the forming of the Asian-African partnership for the 21st Century, when the two continents celebrated the 50th anniversary of the conference in April 2005.

'€œThe 2005 partnership has strengthened relations between Asia and Africa in many sectors, from social, cultural, economic to political. We believe Jokowi will look at such development and make it better,'€ said Mageza, who is also the dean of the Group of African Ambassadors.

She explained that such optimism came from her personal experience of meeting Jokowi in Surakarta, Central Java, in 2006, when he lead the city as mayor.

Sudanese Ambassador Ibrahim Bushra Mohamed Ali also believed that Jokowi could rekindle the spirit of the conference during his five-year presidency.

He said he had met Jokowi and had talked about several issues related to the bilateral ties of the two countries. '€œFood security and energy are two sectors we will strengthen with Indonesia,'€ he said.

Tunisian Ambassador to Indonesia Mourad Belhassen said that Indonesia and African countries needed to make a joint commission and increase the number of bilateral visits between the two parties.

'€œUnder Indonesia'€™s new government, we hope that the number of high-level delegations of business leaders and Cabinet members will increase between Indonesia and Tunisia,'€ he said.

Nigerian Ambassador Mohammad Lawal Sulaiman said Indonesia had become major trade partner for Nigeria and that a large number of Indonesian commodities could be found in Nigeria.

'€œAmong other things, Indomie instant noodles are very popular in Nigeria,'€ he said, referring to one of the most consumed foods for lower- to middle-class households in Indonesia.

Indonesian Deputy Foreign Minister Dino Patti Djalal said Indonesia had learnt many things from Africa. For example, in 2007, Indonesia pushed members of ASEAN to include human rights principles and democratic values in the ASEAN Charter, as ASEAN was lagging behind other regional groups in addressing human rights concerns.

'€œ[Former Indonesian] foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda told ASEAN colleagues that Africa already had a human rights charter. If Africa could do it, why couldn'€™t we?'€ he said. (alz)