Presiden SBY Says His Diplomacy Not Rhetorical

Jakarta - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) arrived home on Thursday afternoon from visiting Liberia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Aboard the plane above the Indian Ocean on the way home President SBY stated that his bilateral and multilateral diplomatic efforts were not rhetorical but concrete and were made exclusively for the national interests. He said "in Nigeria which is the biggest economy in Africa we have been able to get a cooperation opportunity in trade, investment as well as oil and gas." "With Saudi Arabia whose economy is in surplus a similar cooperation opportunity has also been opened," he said. On multilateral fronts like in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Cairo he said he had given a speech representing Asia that was concrete and not rhetorical. SBY said OIC is not like ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) which also conducts economic cooperation. OIC is an organization for developing solidarity and friendship among its members, he said. He said the OIC has been determined to continue to help the weak such as Palestine, Syria and the Rohingya people. "A lot of ideas have been raised but they have been difficult to carry out. But the call I made to help the weak there was not rhetorical," he said. SBY has proposed a Safety Fund Plan for Palestine. He said aid was needed for the Palestinian people so that they could meet their daily needs. "All would help Palestine but the question is in what form. Indonesia meanwhile has concretely helped by training 8,000 Palestinian officials in the past five years," he said. He said Indonesia wished to become part of the solution and would not only be rhetorical.(*)