RI Making Constant Effort To Develop Inter-Civilization Dialog

London (Antara Bali) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia is making a constant effort to develop inter-faith and inter-civilization dialogs to create mutual understanding of cultures and religions in pursuit of mutually beneficial global cooperation.

One of Indonesia's foreign policies at regional and global levels is developing communication among countries in the world to achieve strong mutual understanding, he told the Wilton Park forum at the British Foreign Ministry here on Friday.

He noted that there are a number of factors to ensure the success of inter-faith and inter-civilization dialogs. "The first thing is that we need to intensify the process of the dialogs and their rules and then turn this century into a soft power century in the midst of different races and cultures," he said.

He said all parties need to develop global education as part of efforts to encourage the success of inter-faith and inter-civilization dialogs.

In this connection, the President said the Indonesian government hails the initiative of and the longstanding agreement with the British government to develop inter-faith and inter-civilization dialogs.

"In 2006, then prime minister Tony Blair and I agreed to encourage the formation of an Indonesia-United Kingdom Islamic Advisory Group comprising religious leaders of the two countries. We asked this group to issue recommendations on how to promote a dialog among Muslims of the two countries as well as a dialog with adherents of other faiths," he said. (*/M038)