Yudhoyono to Meet Putin and Hu Jintao

Vladivostok, Russia - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to hold separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday. The leaders will discuss issue of interest to their respective countries on the sidelines of the APEC summit meeting held in this Russian city, presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said. "Yudhoyono will meet Hu Jintao earlier on the day at 10.30 local time to be followed with the meeting with Putin at 11.30," he said. Julian said Yudhoyono will also meet a number of Russian business leaders with companies operating in the energy and transport sectors. They include Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, CEO of Norilsk Nickel and Oleg Deripashka, the CEO of RUSAL Corporation which operate in the mining and energy sector and with Mikhail Pogosyan, the CEO of United Aircraft Corporation. At the APEC summit meeting Yudhoyono will speak about the importance of further expansion of APEC cooperation, Julian said . APEC cooperation has been progressing well but Indonesia wants to study possible expansion of the cooperation, he said. He said the European crisis will not be discussed specifically at the meeting . However, in order to reduce the impact of the global economic woes Indonesia wants to attach greater importance to inclusive and equitable development in this region with more attention to less developed economies in the region, he said. The meeting of the APEC leaders will start at 14:30 to last until 16:45 local time today to be proceeded with a dialog with APEC Bussines Advisory Council (ABAC). On Saturday night there will be dinner to be attended by presidents and first ladies of all member countries to last until 21:30. On Sunday discussions will be resumed between the APEC leader to be followed with working lunch before the closing ceremony. Trade and investment liberalization will figure importantly in the meeting to be discussed at the first day session on Saturday. Other issues on the agenda to be discussed on the day include regional economic integration to promote balanced and sustainable growth, and establishment of reliable supply chain. On Sunday the topics will include issue to ensure food security and encourage innovative growth. At the lunch the leaders will discuss economic situation in the world and in the Asia-Pacific region. (*)