Along with Norway Indonesia encourages disarmament efforts in the Asian region, the director of international security and disarmament of the ministry of foreign affairs, Desra Percaya, said at the Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions.
Percaya said Norway and Germany in cooperation with Indonesia planned to organize a regional meeting on cluster munitions at the end of 2009.
Indonesia will invite countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions to make the meeting a success, he said adding that the decision to hold the meeting was based on consideration that such meetings had been mostly held in Europe.
By holding the meeting in Indonesia it was hoped the region could be more active in efforts of universalizing the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM).
At the meeting Norway’s state secretary Espen Barth Eide meanwhile appealed to all countries to immediately hit the ground and run to implement their commitment to the CCM.
Efforts in the destruction of cluster munitions are a co mplicated process in view of the big number of munitions, destruction technicalities and environmental aspects of destruction. Without detailed planning it would be difficult for countries to meet their obligation in the CCM. The deputy foreign minister of Laos, Boumkeut Sangsomsak, also conveyed his country’s plan to hold the first meeting of state parties in November 2009.
