South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has urged African and Asian nations to form a "strategic partnership" to reverse the marginalization of their two continents in world affairs.
"This initiative can empower us to transform our reality," Dlamini-Zuma told ministers attending an Asian-African Sub-Regional Organizations Conference in Durban on Friday.
Delegates endorsed the initiative, which is to be formally launched at an Asian-African Summit in Jakarta next April, the South African Press Association reported.
"The nations of both continents have to begin to look at ways to complement each other's strengths, mitigate each other's weaknesses and develop workable political and economic programs," said a statement issued at the end of the meeting.
Dlamini-Zuma, who co-chaired the meeting with her Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, said member countries would be looking at ways to facilitate trade between their two continents, improve product quality and competitiveness and establish regulatory frameworks that are attractive to investors ahead of next year's summit.
Wirajuda said he hoped to see the regional grouping's more than 100 members representing over 4 billion people make use of their natural wealth for the promotion of peace, stability and prosperity.
The African and Asian delegates held their meeting after attending a Non-Aligned Movement ministerial gathering on Thursday.
Ministers from the movement's 116 member states called for a boycott of all goods and products emanating from Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in protest against Israel's West Bank barrier.
They also urged member countries to refuse entry to Israeli settlers and to impose sanctions against companies involved in building the wall.
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