REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia has appealed to Asian and African countries to support Palestine's capacity building programs in a bid to help the country achieve independence.

"It is very important for the Asian-African countries to unite to support Palestine and develop programs aimed at building that country's capacity," Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi stated at the opening of the Asia-Africa Conference's ministerial meeting here on Monday (20/4).

She affirmed that Indonesia remains firm in its stance to lend solid support to Palestine to achieve its independence through a two-state solution scheme.

In view of that, Indonesia believes that assuring the Palestinian people and government's readiness to run an independent country is as important as achieving independence, she emphasized.

The ministerial meeting was held following the senior officials' meeting on Sunday aimed at discussing documents to be issued at the Asia-Africa Conference summit.

The documents include the "Bandung Message" on the strengthening of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership and on the support to Palestine's independence.

The draft document on Palestine's independence was first agreed upon at the senior officials' meeting.

A Middle East observer from state Gajahmada University Mutiah Setiawati stated that the declaration of support to Palestine's independence is one of the main documents discussed at the Asia-Africa Conference 2015 as a form of moral support from Indonesia.

"Moral support is very important for Palestine. It is important for it being recognized as a non-problematic country rather than a country that creates problems, and it needs international support to settle them," she noted.

She pointed out that Indonesia, since the government of first President Soekarno, has always supported Palestine.

"Indonesia will continue to name Palestine as a colonized country in the world," she added.

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