The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Hassan Wirajuda, speaking today at the 116th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, referred to the surge of hope that had emerged two decades ago that many of the world's problems would simply go away with the end of the Cold War, that the world would enjoy the blessings of information technology, where the cause of economic and social development would benefit from the peace dividend. But, he added, "there was no peace dividend. And there was no peace. Unilateralism reasserted itself in global affairs. The number of armed conflicts increased. Some old conflicts, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have persisted, and new ones, like the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, have broken out".

The Indonesian Foreign Minister also mentioned the problem of international terrorism, a topic that the 116th Assembly will debate as an emergency item. "More people are being killed today than in the two decades before the end of the Cold War. And today, a new security threat that can inflict unprecedented suffering on humankind looms on the horizon: global warming. This means that, 15 years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and almost a decade after the Kyoto Protocol, nothing decisive has been done by the developed and developing world together in a partnership to sustain the environment".

Speaking on the topic of global partnership, Dr. Wirajuda declared that "the remedy is to take an intermediate step, to move from national to global by way of the regional. This means promoting regional cooperation and making it a constant and vigorous complement of all our global undertakings. Regional is a powerful motivator. When confronted with a major problem or threat in their immediate geographical neighbourhood, nations instinctively group together and address that problem or threat together".

Dr. Wirajuda concluded his remarks by saying that "every successful regional order can serve as an important building block in the construction of the edifice that is an enhanced world order. Then we will have a world in which nations, regions and the entire human race are interconnected and aware of their indivisible destiny".

In the afternoon, the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Dr. Budiono, also addressed the Assembly. He explained that among the countries affected by the 1997 crisis, Indonesia was the hardest hit and the slowest to recover. "We had to restart the economy from a low level and we had to do that at the same time as we undertook a tricky process of political transition. In the past decade the economy has been steadily edging up from the negative growth territory to the positive while our democracy is also taking root".

Dr. Budiono stressed that "job creation and poverty reduction are important goals in themselves as well as instrumental for successful political development in a young democracy such as Indonesia." The key was to accelerate economic growth while maintaining economic stability, a "conventional" policy that had to be supplemented with a proactive approach to meeting basic needs, empowering the poor and small enterprises and generating jobs, including by facilitating overseas employment for domestic labour forces.

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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 148 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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Contact for additional information or interviews:

Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer Phone: +41 22 919 41 16 Mobile: +41 79 649 71 45 Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cbl@mail.ipu.org Information and accreditation: Mr. Chrys Kelana, Indonesian Information Officer of the 116th Assembly. Phone: +62 21 831 7515 Mobile: +62 816 77 1912 Fax: +62 21 831 4371 E-mail: chkelana@indosat.net.id