A

side from hosting beauty contests and high profile soccer matches, Indonesia will host another important meeting this June. The sixth Forum of East Asia and Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) Ministerial Meeting will be held in Bali, June 13-14.  

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will officially open and receive a collective courtesy call from at least 16 ministers and 12 vice ministers representing 33 countries in the Bali FEALAC 2013 meeting.  

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa will lead the meeting to formulate new, concrete results amid opportunities and challenges.

Why is this meeting relevant to Indonesia, ASEAN and East Asia?

Look at the past. Almost 20,000 miles apart, Sukarno, the founding president of Indonesia, made a historical journey of friendship to Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Today, the Che Guevara T-shirt is an iconic souvenir sold by street vendors in Yogyakarta, Bandung, Jayapura and even Kuala Lumpur.  

Indonesians mourned Hugo Chavez's death. Scores of people from the Greater Jakarta Labor Joint Secretariat held a candle lit vigil at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta to pay their respects to the charismatic Venezuelan president.

However, not only popular Latin American leaders, but also soccer players and Latin beauty queens are finding their ways into people's hearts and minds.  

Beyond legendary soccer players like Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Kaka, or top singer Enrique Iglesias, Latin America has a strong influence on the people of Asia.

'The Bank of the South, a new lending institution, independent of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Union of South American Nations, a 12-member intergovernmental organization, might someday move the continent [of South America] toward the model of the European Union,' said The New York Times, noting one of Chávez's legacies.

It is timely for East Asia to strengthen its relations with Latin American countries.

'These two dynamic regions have so much potential for collaboration that we have yet to tap in earnest,' said Yudhoyono during the third ASEAN-Latin America Business Forum in July 2012. 'The two regions each have total trade of around US$2.5 trillion, but only 2.3 percent of that value represents trade between them. The countries of ASEAN and Latin America and the Caribbean need to develop connectivity, to bridge the distance between them.'

There are 18 free trade agreements among countries in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, and that may rise to 30 by 2020. Asia-Latin America and the Caribbean bilateral investment treaties have doubled since the 1990s to almost 40 agreements, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) 2012 report.

The report noted that trade between Asia and Latin America had grown tremendously in the past decade, reaching an estimated $442 billion in 2011. China, Japan, Korea and India account for nearly 90 percent of Asia's total trade with Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina account for close to 80 percent of Latin America and the Caribbean's trade with Asia.

The East Asia-Latin America forum is again about much more than just connectivity. Indonesia and ASEAN have to move rapidly to grab this opportunity.

Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in the region at year's end in 2010 stood at over $107 billion. As of June 2011, Korea invested over $14 billion in the region. Latin America and the Caribbean's share of the total FDI stock of these countries amounts to 13 percent and 8 percent respectively, according to the Global Agenda Council on Latin America Report 2011.

Closer economic cooperation between two regions with emphasis on delivering the strongest economic gains is insufficient. People's expectations are far beyond this economic formula.

Talking about Asia-Latin America relations, soccer diplomacy should also get serious attention. This soft power will establish a real connectivity in the hearts and minds of people in the two regions.  Promoting tourism and economic cooperation is an opportunity, but seizing a new momentum and empowering Indonesia and ASEAN soccer on the world stage with Latin America is another important job waiting to be completed.

The writer is an alumnus of the faculty of political and social sciences, the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.