SBY starts two-week American trip

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta,  Fri, 11/14/2008

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday left for a two-week state visit to the United States and three countries in South America to attend a series of meetings with world leaders.

This will be Yudhoyono's longest overseas trip since he assumed office in 2004. He is scheduled to return on Nov. 26.

The presidential entourage took off from Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta on an Airbus A330-341 plane at 11:30 a.m. The President's first stop is Washington DC, primarily to attend the G-20 high-level conference to be held Saturday (Friday in the United States).

In Washington, Yudhoyono will hold one-on-one meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, and will attend a state banquet hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House on Friday.

On the same day he will meet members of the U.S-Indonesia Society.

Yudhoyono will not meet with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama during his visit but will talk to him by telephone, although a specific time has not been confirmed.

After attending the G-20 summit at the National Building Museum in Washington, the President will hold bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Upon his departure, Yudhoyono held a closed-door meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla in the airport's VIP room.

While Yudhoyono is out of the country, Kalla must deal with domestic problems and report to the President, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said.

The President has delegated his official duties to the Vice President, including meeting with several industry sectors to discuss protecting the economy from the impacts of the global financial crisis.

The President will leave for Mexico on Sunday, where he will meet Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and witness the signing of memorandums of understanding on trade, energy, education and agriculture.

Yudhoyono will be in Mexico until Tuesday, before heading to Brazil and then onto Peru from Nov. 20 to Nov. 23. He will attend the APEC Economic Leaders meeting in the Peruvian capital Lima.

Joining the presidential entourage are several Cabinet ministers, House of Representatives members, businesspeople and economists and about 30 journalists