"Around March 20 to 21 the secretary general is scheduled to meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, then he is expected to attend the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said here on Friday.
The JIDD is a dialogue forum aiming to bring together key national leaders, military officers, academics and policy makers from throughout the Asia-Pacific region and beyond to strengthen the harmonization of their security priorities and strategies, as well as dialogue and engagement between their defense forces that will be so critically important for the future stability of the region.
Designed to serve as the first of a series of inter-related defense dialogue-focused conferences throughout the next five years, the event will create a preliminary but nonetheless important foundation upon which participating nations will be able to establish both formal and informal programs of consultation, collaboration and coordination ' either as tailored individual cooperation plans or as wider, multinational strategies ' that will lead to increased transparency, trust and confidence.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
