"We have not forgotten the 2004 tsunami that struck from the Indian Ocean. It killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand a day after Christmas in 2004," he said.
"This time, a huge natural disaster has again occurred in Japan. This again shows that having sound regional cooperation and excellent disaster response management is highly needed," he said.
Speaking at the 2011 ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Disaster Relief Exercise (Direx) here Tuesday, Boediono said almost all members of the ARF were located in the Pacific "ring of fire".
These countries were vulnerable to such natural disasters as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, and landslides, Vice President Boediono said.
Due to the fact that a series of tremendous natural disasters had frequently happened in the Asia Pacific region over the past years, Boediono said this great challenge needs to be responded together.
"This has become a common problem that demands international community`s attention," he said.
In connection with this, Boediono said the joint-exercises in this ARF Direx was a good effort to improve the capability of building cooperation and managing disaster responses of all related stakeholders in the region.
"We must have closer and more integrated cooperation in responding and managing the impacts of natural disasters. Our target is having ability to quickly respond to any natural disaster," he said.
The opening session of the ARF Direx here was attended by representatives of 20 countries and a number of Indonesian ministers, including Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.
Purnomo said the ARF Direx was expected to improve the military and civilian capability of responding to the impacts of natural disasters.
Japanese Deputy Ministry for Foreign Affairs Makiko Kikuta was present at the ARF Direx though Japan did not participate in the joint-exercise due to a recent tsunami that struck it.
The current participants in the ARF are Indonesia, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, Democratic Peoples` Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States, and Vietnam.
(Uu.R013/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
