Afro-Asian Summit starts tomorrow

From Rodney Martinesz in Jakarta

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse will be among the last group of Afro-Asian leaders to arrive in the sprawling Indonesian capital today for a summit which would rekindle the spirit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar will also participate in the proceedings.

Some 90 Heads of State from disparate cultures and representing different political ideologies will join in unison at the Asian-African Summit 2005, which will open tomorrow in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the Asian-African conference 1955, famously known as the Bandung Conference.

The aim is to reinvigorate the Bandung spirit and work towards a new Asian-African strategic partnership to mark the dawn of a new era of cooperation.

Bandung was the precursor to the Non-Aligned Movement which groups some 107 countries of the Asian and Asian region to play an effective role as a bulwark against the fallout of super power tensions.

The participants at tomorrow's summit have vowed to re-dedicate themselves to the aims of NAM and push forward an agenda to re-kindle the flame of the once powerful movement.

For Premier Rajapakse tomorrow's summit would no doubt bring back pleasant memories having had a ringside view of proceedings of one of the most successful NAM summits, as a young MP in the Government of late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1976. The NAM Summit was held at the newly constructed BMICH that year.

The Asian-African Summit 2005, at the Jakarta Convention Centre will be declared open by the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following a minute's silence for tsunami victims.

The centrepiece of the celebrations will take place on April 24, Sunday when around 60 Heads of State from Asia and Africa would make a nostalgic journey to the West Java Provincial capital of Bandung where leaders of two continents proclaimed the famous 10 principles 50 years ago.