"The prime minister of New Zealand will not attend and he will be represented by Foreign Minister Murray McCullly," Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said here on Saturday.
Key would not attend the 6th East Asia Summit to be joined for the first time by the US and Russia because of upcoming general elections in his country. Key received his invitation for the summit from Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa when the latter visited New Zealand on September 9, 2011, he said.
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was initially also reported not able to attend the summit because of the floods in her country but she later changed here mind and has confirmed her plan to come to Bali. Yingluck would also be participating in ASEAN and SEA summits for the first time since being elected prime minister.
Eighteen countries are scheduled to attend the East Asia Summit namely Indonesia as chair of ASEAN, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia as ASAEN members and eight dialog partners namely China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the US.
Indonesia was officially named as ASEAN chair on January 1, 2011 and it will hand over the post at the upcoming 19th ASEAN summit to Cambodia. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
