Beijing rejects Taipei hosting Asian-city meeting
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-24 13:26

Beijing on Tuesday refused to sign a declaration of a meeting of Asian mayors and governors to express disagreement over a decision to hold their 2006 meeting in Taipei, according to Jakarta Gov. Sutiyoso, who hosted the meeting this year.

Deputy Beijing Mayor Zhang Mao [newsphoto]

Deputy Beijing Mayor Zhang Mao was not willing to sign the Jakarta Declaration, produced at the two-day fourth meeting of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 that ended Tuesday, after the forum agreed that Taipei will host the sixth meeting in 2006, he said.

The forum of mayors and governors of 12 major cities in Asia also agreed to hold their fifth meeting in Beijing in 2005.

"What we signed is a result which has been jointly agreed on, so if they (Beijing) refused to sign (the declaration), we will (still) deliver the declaration to the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 Secretariat in Tokyo," Sutiyoso said.

Beijing's refusal, he said, means that the fifth meeting will automatically take place in Taipei.

Sutiyoso said, however, he will make an approach Beijing to sign the declaration.

"This is not easy. This is a political issue," the governor said.

In the Jakarta Declaration, the mayors and governors agreed to implement 12 cooperation programs including a distance learning project, vehicular emission controls and urban crisis management.

The forum agreed to a joint project on countermeasures to combat infectious diseases in Asia as proposed by Tokyo.

They also agreed to improve and strengthen cooperation to combat terrorism in the so-called Network for Crisis Management program.

The network includes the cities of Bangkok, Beijing, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, New Delhi, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Yangon.

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