BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP) - Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, speaking during a one-day visit to Brunei, called for a common petroleum strategy among Southeast Asia's predominantly Muslim nations.
Wahid, stressing he had fully recovered from the flu which had cast doubts over his Brunei visit, said a joint strategy among petroleum-rich countries Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia would go a long way in the costly area of resources and technology.
"Maybe, we could work out a common strategy globally and internally among the three Islamic countries of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia," Wahid told a news conference at Brunei's capital Bandar Seri Begawan before returning home after a one-day working visit.
Wahid said he raised his suggestion for the joint petroleum initiative during talks with Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. The sultan's response, whose tiny Brunei sultanate lies on the huge Borneo Island, was not immediately known.
Wahid said Brunei Shell - a local joint venture with Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell - and the state-run Brunei Petroleum Unit as well as the national petroleum corporations of Malaysia and Indonesia, Petronas and Pertamina, "could get together and work something out" in terms of a joint strategy.
Wahid, who arrived early yesterday for a visit to enhance bilateral ties, also raised the possibility of Indonesia enrolling students at the University of Brunei's petroleum faculty. He said Indonesian students need not go to the West to be trained in petroleum technology when such expertise was available in nearby Brunei, which also had the backing of oil experts from, among other countries, Britain and the Netherlands.
Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah greeted the tired-looking Wahid, 59, on arrival at the Brunei international airport. It is his first visit to Brunei since becoming Indonesia's first democratically elected leader last year. He had skipped Brunei during his tour of Southeast Asia immediately after assuming office.
The president's doctors last Thursday said Wahid, who cannot walk without assistance following two strokes several years ago, was suffering from influenza and advised rest for a few days, putting his trip in doubt.
However, the president insisted on making the trip to the oil-rich state yesterday and East Timor tomorrow. He told reporters in Brunei that he had fully recovered from the flu after he followed doctors' orders to rest for two days. "This seems to have worked. I'm on the road again," said Wahid, who has traveled extensively since he became president in October.
Apart from neighboring Southeast Asian nations, Wahid has made trips to the Middle East, Europe, the United States, China and India. Wahid also met the Indonesian community in Brunei as part of his visit.
