Indonesia hosts 60th anniversary Asian-African Summit

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Asia-African Conference, from April 19–23, Indonesia hosted several nations from Asia and Africa to build unity and collaboration through the “Strengthening South-South Cooperation to Promote World Peace and Prosperity” summit.

In 1955, the first Asian-African Conference — also known as the Bandung Conference — was held in Bandung and constituted the first collaboration of leaders from Asian and African countries.

The summit served as the first step towards building alliances, experts say.

“The original Asian-African Summit helped coin the phrase ‘Bandung Spirit,’ which acted as the backbone of international affairs between those countries to better relations and inspire harmony within economic, social and political boundaries,” explained Charles Yang, an Asian American studies major at Indiana University.

According to the Asian African Conference Commemoration website, the conference was established to “strength[en] partnerships amongst Asian and African nations and share experiences in enhancing both regions’ economic development.”

The collaboration also aimed to provide an “opportunity to discuss solutions to overcome common challenges through strengthening South-South Cooperation,” the site says.

Leaders from over 100 Asian and African countries, as well as 16 observer countries and 25 international organizations, attended the event held in two of Indonesia’s main cities, Jakarta and Bandung.

Jarkarta hosted meetings between the governments of nations active at the commemoration.

Bandung, the current location of the Asian-African Conference Museum, hosted the ceremonial programs and was the final destination of the five-day summit.

The event involved the representatives from participating countries to take part in a walk from Savoy Homann to the Merdeka Building. This proved significant as it represented the same walk that the Asian-African delegates took during the first summit 60 years ago, in 1955. Following the walk, several leaders spoke about ways that Asian and African countries could work together towards achieving equality and prosperity for all.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo spoke at the event, stating, “Asian and African countries must work shoulder to shoulder to create prosperity through economic and trade cooperation.”

“With frequent instances of terrorism, war and instability amongst surrounding countries, it makes you wonder why more countries don’t mimic the Asian-African Conference, which allows selected leaders from each country an opportunity to establish, demonstrate, and collaborate the values and viewpoints amongst participating countries,” elaborated Michael Brenner, a history major at the University of Maryland.

Another speaker during the event, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed three main points regarding bolstering communal affairs: “to boost Asian-African cooperation, to expand South-South cooperation in order to speed up development among developing economies, and to promote South-North cooperation between developing and developed nations.”

“It is crazy to think about the progress that Asian and African countries have experienced since the first conference in 1955,” said Eli Davis, a journalism major at the University of Maryland. “Some countries are still in the works of development, but the global economy of most of these participating countries has steadily improved through the efforts of these leaders.”

Photo of original 1955 conference in Bandung.