Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Media Friends,

1.	This afternoon, the Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting on the Earthquake and Tsunami was concluded smoothly and successfully.
2.	The meeting was attended by 15 Heads of States/Government, Ministers from 12 countries, including 9 international observers, and 9 international organisations. The attendance of a number of world Leaders, although under very short notice, reflects the level of global solidarity that have not emerged previously, in confronting the unprecedented natural disaster. I realise that the attendance of Leaders, has provided hope for Indonesia, especially those that are in the afflicted areas.
3.	Since the beginning, it is fully understood that the meeting is not a rhetorical conference, with a vague declaration. The meeting is an emergency meeting, which is intended to produce a transparent and concrete outcome, to help people in the Indian Ocean region that severely need assistance. I speak on behalf of all parties concerned that the Special Leaders Meeting would fulfill their expectation.
4.	This morning, the meeting commenced with a moment of silence to honour all the deceased victims of the disaster. After I opened the meeting, several Leaders expressed their remarks, such as the Prime Minister of Lao PDR as ASEAN Chairman, the Prime Minister of Singapore, and the UN Secretary­General. The Leaders of the afflicted countries by tsunami, such as Myanmar, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, and Thailand as well as Indonesia have also gave their presentation regarding the latest situation in the respective countries.
5.	The meeting was followed by deliberation on the working plan, which became the main session of this meeting. In the meeting various ideas and initiatives have been expressed, among others, ideas what has to be done, coordinated, how to mitigate the burden of afflicted counties, how to prevent high number of death in the future disasters, how is the role of the United Nations as well as other international organizations, what are the needed measures to ensure the availability of sustainable funding, and how to develop an effective early warning system for the region.
6.	I welcome the meeting which, through a long deliberation, produced a Declaration, as made available to all of you, namely the Declaration on Action to Strengthen Emergency Relief, Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Prevention on the Aftermath of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster of 26 December 2004.
7.	I am sincerely pleased that the meeting was conducted in a friendly and amicable manner. The Leaders have shown their significant attention and commitment to ensure the success of endeavours in overcoming the burden of the people in the stricken area. With the spirit of solidarity, the Leaders have been frank in expressing and discussing the many ideas.
8.	May I now highlight several main issues, which have been agreed during the meeting as reflected in the Declaration.
9.	The Leaders are aware of the need to better coordinate and to ensure all contribution and assistance could be distributed in an effective and sustainable manner. The Leaders are also aware of the importance to undertake immediate efforts to prevent a high number of death in similar future natural disaster.
10.	To reach our objectives, the Leaders therefore agreed to take concrete measures, particularly in three phases: Emergency Relief; Rehabilitation and Reconstruction; as well as Prevention and Mitigation.
11.	With regard to the emergency relief, the Leaders are aware of the importance to immediately carry out resource mobilisation to fulfill the emergency needs of the victims, including commitment to enhance coordination and collaboration for the national and international recovery efforts, to ensure the effectiveness of the relief distribution. The Leader have not only requested the United Nations to mobilise international support, but also to appoint a Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to increase coordination among donor countries, international organizations and non-governmental organizations in assisting government of affected countries.
12.	Pertinent to the rehabilitation an reconstruction phases, ASEAN Leaders requested the World Bank, ASEAN Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and related international financial institutions to provide the necessary fund for the viability and sustainability of national rehabilitation and reconstruction programs.
13.	The meeting also agreed to establish a partnership upon the request of the countries concerned, by involving donor countries and countries in the region, as well as international financial institutions to support respective national programs.
14.	The Leaders welcomed and supported initiatives of several countries on the moratorium of payments of the external debt of the affected countries to augment their national capacity in order to concentrate on the rehabilitation and reconstruction endeavour.
15.	With regard to mitigation and prevention efforts, the Leaders fully supports ASEAN initiative to establish a regional mechanism on disaster prevention and mitigation, among others, through stand-by arrangement that may uses military and civil personnel in disaster relief operation, the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre and ASEAN Disaster Information Sharing and Communication Network.
16.	The Leaders are committed to promote public education, awareness and community participation to prevent and mitigate disasters.
17.	I am truly pleased that the meeting has agreed to support the proposal to establish an early warning system in the regional, similar to the Regional Tsunami Early Warning Centre in the Pacific Ocean. This is in fact of a concern for all parties, and the Leaders are certain that this effort would assist in enhancing capacity-building and human resources in the national and regional level, through international partnership and cooperation.
18.	I may also convey that during this special meeting, I also have made several bilateral meetings with the Head of States/Government and international organisation, namely Malaysia, United States, Republic of Korea, China, Australia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Japan. During the meetings, they have generally expressed their assistance pledge to Indonesia in overcoming this disaster. Soon afterward, I will meet with the UN Secretary-General, European Union, and United Kingdom.
19.	Twelve days subsequent to the Tsunami disaster, we are still striving to cope with the devastation. In a short period of time, all the emergency relief would be concluded, and the affected countries would continue with the long term rehabilitation and reconstruction, in which, it would not only take a longer time, but also needs vast amount of resources compared to the emergency relief phase. The next step would be long and there would be many things to accomplish. Nevertheless, the meeting is a good beginning. In handling a greater crisis, such as this crisis, all of the affected countries would need sustainable commitment in order to carry out the long term recovery programs.
20.	In closing, allow me to reaffirm our great appreciation to the overwhelming attention and also great solidarity shown by the international community. I believe that this disaster will unify us. The natural disaster is an incident that would touch our hearts. Nevertheless, allow to remind all of us that the spirit of human race will not fade away due to this disaster.
21.	Thank you, may I now invite you to raise your questions

Jakarta, 6 January 2005