Humanitarian Aid to Indonesia

PRESS RELEASE

On August 2, a ceremony took place at the Russian Embassy in Indonesia to hand over Russian humanitarian grain to the Government of Indonesia. 3,234 tons of wheat had been delivered to Jakarta by two dry-cargo vessels under the auspices of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

Taking part in the ceremony were M. A. Fatwa, Vice Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (upper house of parliament) of Indonesia; A. Setiana, Deputy Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare; D. Sumodiningrat, Deputy Minister for Social Affairs; Tabrani, Deputy Secretary General of the National Coordinating Board for Disaster Management; E. Haryadi, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia; B. Busetto, Head of the WFP Office in Jakarta, A. A. Ivanov, Russia's Ambassador to Indonesia, and other officials.

The Russian humanitarian grain is intended to be used for the production of vitaminized crackers which will be distributed to the schools of Jakarta, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara provinces and also of Ache province, which was tsunami ravaged in December 2004. It is expected that the Russian food aid will cover 216,000 Indonesian children.

The representatives of the Indonesia side on behalf of the Government of Indonesia expressed gratitude for the handed-over humanitarian aid, emphasizing that it was a symbol of friendship between the peoples of the two countries.

August 2, 2007