Nusa Dua (ANTARA) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is reported to be unable to attend the 6th East Asian Summit (EAS) in Bali on November 19, 2011 although it would have been the first time for him to attend the forum. "The Russian president cannot attend and will be replaced by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said here Saturday. According to information from the Russian Embassy in Jakarta, Medvedev could not leave Russia as he was preparing for an upcoming election. Russia, along with the US, are the EAS's newest members. With Medvedev's absence, only US President Barack Obama would be attending the meeting for the first time. Another EAS leader who will skip the meeting in Bali is New Zealand Prime Minister John Key who is also preoccupied with preparations for an upcoming election. John Key would be represented by New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. With the absence of the Russian president and the New Zealand prime minister, the sixth EAS will only be attended by 16 heads of state/government. The leaders of ASEAN's 10 member countries have all confirmed their attendance at the 19th ASEAN Summit and related meetings. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who was initially also reported unable to attend the Bali summits eventually made known her intention to come to Bali after all. ASEAN leaders have confirmed their attendance namely the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Sultan of Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, Lao PDR Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdul Razak, Myanmar President Thein Sein, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra and Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung. As for the other six ASEAN dialogue partner country leaders who have confirmed to attend are Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and the US President Barack Obama. ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan and the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are also scheduled to attend the series and the ASEAN-UN summit.(*)

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Editor : Chandra Hamdani Noer


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