0 Cameron to attend Bali meeting remotely

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa confirmed on Wednesday that British Prime Minister David Cameron would not attend the next meeting of the UN High-Level Panel (HLP) on the post-2015 development agenda in Bali, but would participate in the meeting via video conference. “Prime Minister Cameron has communicated both over the phone and through written statements with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,” Marty told the press at the State Palace. 

Marty said Cameron’s absence would be due to “urgent budgetary processes that were needed to be pushed forward by the government and hence Cameron’s focus on the issue is required.” According to the minister, Cameron would still convey his view via video conference. Cameron, alongside Yudhoyono and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were three co-chairs of the panel appointed by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon last August. The HLP will hold its fourth consultative meeting in Bali from 25 to 27 March. 

Previously, they met in London last October, and the Liberian Capital of Monrovia in January. Twenty six UN-appointed HLP members are working on a development agenda that will replace eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) that expire in 2015. The post-2015 development agenda has been worked on since September 2012 and should be completed in May 2013 when the panel will hold its last meeting in New York, the US. 

Also on Wednesday, Yudhoyono provided his suggestions about the resolution of conflict in the Middle East to former British prime minister Tony Blair in the latter’s capacity as the special envoy of the Diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East, when the two met at the Presidential Office. “I have been following your hard work and significant contribution to the world, particularly the Middle East, in many areas such as climate change, development and many other sectors,” Yudhoyono told Blair upon welcoming his British guest. 

According to Marty, the two discussed various issues but especially focused on the prolonged tensions in the Middle East, such as Palestine, Syria and Egypt. “Blair expressed similar opinions to Indonesia’s on Syria. We’re both really concerned about the situation in that Middle Eastern country, which has failed to show positive progress so far,” Marty told the press after the closed-door meeting, which was completed in under an hour.

source : the jakarta post