Second ASA Summit ends as Venezuelan president announces final declaration

September 28, 2009

The second Africa-South America (ASA) Summit ended Sunday as Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez announced that the final declaration was approved.

"The Margarita Declaration and Action Plan have been approved," he told the plenary session in Porlamar, Margarita Island of Venezuela.

Some 20 leaders from African and South American countries attended the summit to discuss issues concerning education, health, energy and global economic crisis.

The declaration covers issues concerning climate change and building alternative financial mechanism to counter the current economic crisis and stave off possible future crises.

The declaration also urges signatories to seek social justice, social inclusion, equality and mutual respect, and to fight human trafficking and transnational crimes.

"The key thing is to assume the responsibility and maintain the willingness for independent decision-making," Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi told the closing session of the meeting.

Food security was a major topic at the summit, as Venezuela signed an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization to help build irrigation infrastructure, donate certified seeds and train staff in African nations, and provide grants for African students in Venezuela.

On the sidelines of the summit, Venezuela signed agreements with Sierra Leone to form a joint mining company. It also signed an oil agreement with South Africa.

Earlier on Sunday, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa urged African and South American countries to work together and redress the asymmetry in economic development.

Also on Sunday, Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja said the alliance between South America and Africa would help boost the sustainable development of both regions.

"The South-South alliance will give our countries the opportunity to break the vicious cycle of poverty," Tandja said.

Meanwhile, President of Comoros Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi proposed that the two continents work together in developing education and building agricultural infrastructure.

The first ASA Summit was held in Abuja, Nigeria in November 2006, which ended with the "Abuja Declaration" and "Plan of Action" aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two regions.

The next ASA Summit will be held in Libya in September 2010.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6771365.html.

Zuma: Chavez is 'interesting character'

President Jacob Zuma has described his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez as an "interesting character", while attending an Africa-South America summit in Venezuela's Margarita Island.

"I've known him for quite a while, he is quite an energetic man, quite talkative," Zuma told SABC radio on Monday, in reply to a question on whether Chavez was seeking South African backing in his "campaign against the United States".

"[He] is full of ideas, I think he's very genuine about the people, he believes in the people, that he should deliver to the people.

"He wants to speak ideas all the time and as he finds an opportunity, he makes the point. I think he's an interesting character," said Zuma.

Zuma and a delegation of government ministers are in Venezuela for bilateral talks aimed at strengthening relations between African and Latin-American countries.

Zuma was scheduled to meet Chavez and Chilean president Michele Bachelet and Uruguay president Tabare Vazquest in the two-day summit in Venezuela's Margarita Island.

"These engagements are aimed at strengthening South-South co-operation as well as bilateral relations between South Africa and her Latin American counterparts," the presidency said earlier.

Chavez has accused former US President George Bush of trying to topple him and more recently said he was certain the US government was still trying to remove him from office.

He has also repeatedly criticized US plans to begin operating out of military bases in neighbouring Colombia.

'Chandrayaan-2 will try to get details about water on moon'

G Madhavan Nair, chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has played a key role in the design and development of the four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the workhorse of ISRO. The PSLV launched the Indian mooncraft, Chandrayaan-1 on its journey to the moon. The mission has won worldwide acclaim after one of its foreign payloads, NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, discovered water molecules. Nair spoke to Srinivas Laxman:

What's the impact of the discovery on our space programme?

The discovery of water has really reinforced India's position as a growing space power. Its status has considerably gone up and this is evident from the several congratulatory messages which we have received from different parts of the world and the various space agencies. We will be getting more and more significant data.

What's the next step?

In the mooncraft there are a number of supporting instruments. These will be used for further confirmation of the presence of water molecules. This whole process is expected to take three to six months. In addition, we are also eagerly awaiting the results from NASA's LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) spacecraft that will crashland at Cabeus, a crater near the moon's south pole, on October 9. This mission is also expected to search for water ice.

On Friday, you said it was ISRO's Moon Impact Probe (MIP) which crashlanded near the Shackleton Crater in the lunar south pole on November 14, 2008, that first detected signs of water. Why was this important fact not publicized earlier?

The MIP first detected signals of water while it was descending towards the lunar surface on November 14. Since it was a short duration flight we could not make any positive announcement that it had detected signals of water until we got firm proof and confirmation. This took about 10 months and now that we have concrete evidence about the presence of water we decided to announce the discovery by MIP.

In which part of the moon was water found?

In the polar regions.

What is the status of the second Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-2?

We expect to launch it in 2013. It is a joint Indo-Russian mission that, apart from the orbiter, will have a lander and two rovers. This mission will also attempt to obtain more details about water.

Has ISRO started receiving scientific proposals for this moon flight?

Yes, suggestions have started coming in and the process of evaluating them will start soon.

Which is ISRO's next mission?

We are preparing for the launch of the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle towards the end of December that will have an indigenous cryogenic engine. The rocket will carry the GSat-4 communication satellite.

Germany's Merkel preparing for new government

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Writer

BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday set about laying the groundwork for her new, center-right coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats after German voters returned her to office for a second term.

Merkel was to hold meetings Monday with leaders of her Christian Democratic Party, to prepare for upcoming coalition talks with the pro-business Free Democrats, whose leader Guido Westerwelle is widely expected to be tapped as her deputy and foreign minister.

Merkel's CDU and its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union, won 33.8 percent of the vote and the Free Democrats captured 14.6 percent — together enough to ensure a majority in parliament. Merkel's former partner in the uneasy "grand coalition", the Social Democrats, took 23 percent. The Left Party had 11.9 percent and the Greens 10.7 percent.

"We have managed to achieve our election aim of a stable majority in Germany for a new government," Merkel told supporters, beaming despite her party's worst showing since 1953.

The result gave the conservatives 239 seats and the Free Democrats 93 in the lower house — for a comfortable center-right majority of 332 seats to 290. The Social Democrats won 146, the Left Party 76 and the Greens 68.

Merkel, 55, had said she would hold "swift and decisive" coalition talks with Westerwelle. The new center-right government is expected to lower taxes in an effort to spur growth and create jobs.

Germany's economy — Europe's largest — has been badly hit by the downturn. Though it returned to modest growth in the second quarter and business confidence is rising, gross domestic product is still expected to shrink by 5 percent or more this year — easily the worst performance since World War II.

That is expected to create hurdles for the next government because a rising budget deficit bloated by stimulus spending during the crisis will make it harder to deliver the promised tax cuts.

"We are ready to take on this responsibility," Westerwelle, 47, told his supporters at the party's election night celebration in Berlin.

Free Democrat deputy leader Andreas Pinkwart told WDR television his party would remain steadfast in its push for tax relief, "above all for families with children."

"Among the leading industrial nations, there is hardly one with such a high tax burden for families as in Germany," Pinkwart said.

Among the thorniest issues that face the new government is its participation in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. In the weeks ahead of the election, extremists from al-Qaida and the Taliban both issued messages aimed at Germany, including threats of retaliation if they did not withdraw their 4,200 troops.

UN chief urges ASEAN to help in Myanmar issue

United Nations, Sep 27 : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the important role of South-East Asian nations in encouraging Myanmar to do what is in the best interests of its people and of the wider region.

Addressing a gathering here of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Mr Ban said yesterday that Myanmar has an opportunity to demonstrate to its people and to the international community its clear commitment to an inclusive political transition.

''It is an opportunity Myanmar should not miss,'' Mr Ban said, adding that ASEAN countries have an important role to play in this effort - first and foremost to ensure the well-being of the people of Myanmar, but also in the wider interest of peace and security in the region.

In a report released this week, Mr Ban voiced disappointment and concern that meaningful steps have yet to be taken by the Myanmar Government following the recent visit by his Special Adviser Ibrahim Gambari, and called the house arrest of opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ''a serious setback to the prospects of genuine national reconciliation, democratic transition and the rule of law.'' He told the ASEAN leaders that it was important that Myanmar responds to the concerns of the international community in a timely and concrete manner.

''The recent release of a number of political prisoners as part of the larger amnesty announced last week, while a step in the right direction, falls short of expectations,'' he stated.

''Our collective interest is to find ways to encourage Myanmar to free Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners, start a genuine political dialogue and create conditions conducive to credible elections.'' In addition, he stated that next year’s election '' the first in two decades '' must be held in an inclusive and credible manner if they are to advance stability, democracy, reconciliation, national development and respect for human rights.

''The international community must send a strong, unified message,'' he stated.

Mr Ban made a similar call earlier in the week when he convened a meeting of the Group of Friends on Myanmar, comprising 14 countries and the European Union.

Participants in yesterday’s meeting had a ''productive, frank and wide ranging exchange of views'' on a range of issues of common concern, according to a joint press statement issued after the gathering.

''The meeting stressed the importance of nurturing an effective partnership between ASEAN and the United Nations that will help both organizations address effectively the challenges affecting Southeast Asia and the world,'' it said.

Ethiopia: Somalia looks like a lost cause

By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Somalia is being hijacked by al-Qaida-linked terrorists who are better organized and more highly motivated than the ineffectual government in Mogadishu, and Sudan could be the next nation to fall under their influence, Ethiopia warned Saturday.

"It is time that we abandon the fiction that this is a war just among Somalis. It is not," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Ato Seyoum Mesfin said in a pessimistic speech before the General Assembly.

"Somalia is being hijacked by foreign fighters who have no inhibition in proclaiming that their agenda has nothing to do with Somalia. Theirs is an ambition that goes well beyond Somalia, and they say it out loud and clear," said Mesfin.

"Today in Somalia, there is greater coordination and cooperation among those who assist the extremists than among those who profess support for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia," Mesfin said.

Last week, two stolen U.N. vehicles packed with explosives blew up at an African Union peacekeeping base in Somalia, killing 21 people, including 17 Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers. Markings on the cars meant they were not subject to the usual security checks.

Al-Shabab, a local Islamic militia with foreign fighters in its ranks, said the Sept. 17 bombing was in retaliation for a U.S. commando raid on Sept. 14 that killed al-Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in southern Somalia. It has released a video pledging allegiance to al-Qaida and showing foreign trainers moving among its fighters.

"As the latest horrific suicide attack ... has shown, those destroying Somalia are being emboldened, and their supporters rewarded," Mesfin said.

On the other hand, "The international community is being stingy even with symbolic steps to show resolve against extremists and spoilers in Somalia," he said.

"It is critical that the international community wakes up before the hijacking of Somalia by extremism is fully consummated," Mesfin said, lamenting that "it appears, the Council does not consider Somalia is a priority."

"What is missing is the political will. No one who knows Somalia well believes that Al-Shabab is popular in Somalia. Whatever gains they have made is a function of their brutality and the support they have from without."

Mesfin warned Sudan could be the next domino.

"The Horn of Africa cannot afford the consequence of failure in the Sudan peace process. We are very close to both parties in the Sudan an asset which we want to use wisely," Mesfin said.

US nuclear weapons in Europe must be taken away: Hans Blix

Hans Blix, General Director of the IAEA and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq and Alexander Gabelic, chairman of the Swedish UN Association have written an article titled US Nuclear Weapons in Europe Must Be Taken Away, which was published in the Svenska Dagbladet recently.

The article says that since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, arms reduction process had made great progress. But after the 9/11 terror attack, the role of nuclear weapons was stressed in some doctrines and statements.

But this year, there appear some new rays on the issue as some American leaders proposed to the US foreign policy to take measures to reduce nuclear weapons since there is no cold war any more.
The Global Zero, an organization which proposed zero nuclear weapons demands the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Swedish Anna Lindh's initiative has given 60 concrete suggestions for the process.

The article says that US president Obama has promised during the election campaign that the US should take initiative to reduce nuclear weapons and he has kept his promise in his diplomatic visits to Prague, Cairo and London.

Russia and the US are negotiating on a new agreement on the maximum number of nuclear heads they should have. The US has said that it will not install the anti-ballistic missile system in eastern European countries. Russia supports this decision. If Russia and China both support such idea and even ratify the agreement on fully ban on new nuclear test, it will be easier for Obama to get it ratified in the Senate.
The article says one issue should be solved soon. That is the nuclear weapons in western European countries and those in western regions of Russia.

The article demands that the US should take those nuclear weapons in the European countries back to America and Russia should move its nuclear further to inland area. The US can and should begin the process by stopping cooperation with Germany and Belgium in installing nuclear warheads in their fighting planes.

The article finally says that today there is a new chance for arms reduction and Obama's initiative should get global support. Sweden has signed the Global Zero initiative.

"With a total of 1.4 trillion US dollars of global military spending annually, the money, instead, to large part, should have been used in improving the living standards of the people on this planet," concludes the article.

By Xuefei Chen, People's Daily Online, Stockholm.