Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb will head the Egyptian delegation to the Asian-African Conference, which will be held in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, between 22 and 24 April. The summit is organized to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Conference, which was the first step toward the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, co-founded by late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, along with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Burma's first Prime Minister U Nu; Indonesia's president, Sukarno; Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah; and Yugoslavia's president, Josip Broz Tito.
The conference also celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership 2005, under the slogan "Strengthening South-South Cooperation to Promote World Peace and Prosperity."
The preparatory meetings for the summit began on Sunday, by reviewing the Bandug Declaration, the document on the revival of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership, as well as the Palestinian Declaration of Independence.
The heads of delegations participating in the summit next Friday will also visit Bandung, to witness the celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the first large-scale Afro–Asian Conference.
Mehleb is also scheduled to hold a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, with representatives of African and Asian countries.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
