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African and Asian leaders, representing
two-thirds of the global population, met in
Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday to discuss ways of
achieving "a new world order".
The talks
were part of the Asia-Africa Summit (AA) co-hosted
by Indonesia and South Africa.
Indonesian
president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, South African
president Thabo Mbeki and United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan opened discussion by urging
leaders to push for a new world
order.
"Your peoples pay the highest price
for inaction in the face of massive violations of
human rights, and for the strains placed on the
UN's peacekeeping, peace building and human rights
machinery," Annan said.
He said developing
countries suffered more than any others from the
proliferation of small arms, light weapons, the
scourge of landmines, and often bore the brunt of
acts of terrorism and the events they
unleashed.
"If we are to make our world a
fairer, freer and safer place for all its
inhabitants, the institutions of the UN should
reflect the world of 2005, not 1945 -–
particularly the Security Council."
He
urged African and Asian leaders to attend the next
UN meeting in New York in September, in force and
well prepared in order to effect the necessary
changes.
In his address, Mbeki urged
leaders to use the summit to build and strengthen
cooperation.
"We must mobilise all the
political and moral spirit of Asia and
Africa."
He said leaders should use their
combined strength to give life to the ideals of
the 1955 Bandung Conference which sought to
eliminate poverty and underdevelopment and effect
the economic rebuilding of Asia and
Africa.
Yudhoyono agreed. He said it had
taken 50 years for Africa and Asia to come
together again, but they were now stronger and
more able to take up the challenges they
faced.
He reminded the conference that in
1955 many Asian countries had only just gained
their independence and African countries were
still colonies.
He described the Asian and
African influence as the "missing link" in global
politics.
"Now as Asia and Africa are free
we must take on the battle for good governance and
dignity. But the battle for dignity is not
necessarily easier than the battle for freedom,"
he said.
He noted that before him stood a
powerful group of leaders who combined represented
almost half the world's population (about
4,5-billion people) and a gross domestic product
(GDP) of about $9,3-trillion. This was said to be
larger than that of the European
Union.
Putting the AA into perspective, a
South African Foreign Affairs official Anil
Sooklal described the coming together of the 106
countries as significant.
"It's a powerful
bloc," he said, noting that Asia was growing
economically at just over six percent a year and
Africa at four, compared to most of Europe which
recorded between one and two percent growth last
year.
He said the bloc also contained 70%
of the world's mineral reserves and that if AA
discussions were successful, free trade agreements
would be reached. These he said could effectively
eliminate Western influence in the diamond, gold
and oil trade
between the two
regions.
Last year trade between Asia and
Africa stood at $72-billion, he said, but added it
had been growing at an impressive average of 10%
per annum.
Yudhoyono said the AA had to be
in the forefront of global co-operation in order
to attain the 1955 objectives of poverty
eradication and the achievement of human
rights.
The most fundamental, he said, was
the right to life.
"No person should die
because they are too poor to live," he said. -
Sapa |