ASEAN summit from Tuesday in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia
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Indonesian President Joko Widodo has chosen the remote port city of Labuan Bajo to discuss controversial issues. Violent conflict between the military regime and civilians in Myanmar, and the growing regional conflict in the South China Sea among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are also on the agenda for the talks.
The leaders of the South-East Asian countries, which are facing various challenges, will meet this time in a small but picturesque tourist destination instead of a famous place. As serious as the agenda of the meeting is, the venue is as picturesque as it gets. The ASEAN summit begins on Tuesday. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has chosen the remote port city of Labuan Bajo to discuss controversial issues. Violent conflict between the military regime and civilians in Myanmar, and the growing territorial conflict in the South China Sea among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are also on the agenda for the talks.
The meeting of the 10-nation regional organization will begin on Tuesday and run for three days against the backdrop of growing rivalry between the US and China. Indonesia is this year’s ASEAN chair and has retaliated against Chinese fishing fleets and coast guards in the area. Widodo has said that the purpose of ASEAN is to cooperate with any country to solve problems through dialogue. During this summit, ASEAN leaders also plan to express concern over human trafficking in a joint statement. “We have a great opportunity to host the ASEAN summit and introduce Labuan Bajo to the world,” Widodo said.
However, this small town also has some constraints. There are only three traffic lights here and the population here is around 6,000. The main occupation of the people here is fishing. There is an acute shortage of hotels for ASEAN diplomats, representatives and journalists. People have also had to make arrangements for sharing rooms. Prior to this, most large events have been held in the popular Bali resorts or in the capital, Jakarta, which has a large number of hotels and conference venues. Labuan Bajo, in contrast, is a very small place and one can walk for two hours from one end to the other. There are no public bus services, and locals travel mostly on foot, scooters or cars. The small airport in Labuan Bajo was packed with visitors on Sunday. A large number of diplomats and journalists have reached here.
Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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