US secretary of state Hillary to visit Jakarta

Jakarta,  (ANTARA News) - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit Jakarta on her working visit to some Asian countries in a bid to strengthen US relations. 

Clinton aims to 'reach out' to the Muslim world as part of her visit to Indonesia [AFP]

In her first foreign visit after her appointment as the US Secretary of State, Clinton will leave Washington DC for Asia on February 15, 2009, a release from the US Embassy office said here on Friday. 

First country Hillary will visit is Japan (on Feb 16-17) followed by Indonesia (on Feb 18-19), South Korea (on Feb 19-20) and China (on Feb 20-22). 

In the capitals of those Asian countries, Hillary will discuss some general approaches on various challenges faced by international community such as the issue on capital market, humanitarian issue, security and climate change. 

"Hillary`s visit at the beginning of Omaba`s government shows how important Indonesia to the United States is," US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R Hume said. 

"She will exchange ideas on US-Indonesia relations which continue to develop including cooperation in various field like education, regional security, environment, trade and health," he said. 

Hume said that Hillary hoped to directly see how Indonesia has changed into a stable, moderate and democratic country in ASEAN region. 

Hillary will also have consultations with some of Indonesian power elites to discuss close partnership with this world largest archipelagic country and perspectives on a joint interest in Southeast Asia. 

This US Secretary of State will have to end her tour by visiting China in which she has been scheduled to meet with some high ranking officials in Beijung to improve cooperations of the two countries.

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Purpose and function of US Peace Corps program: 

The Peace Corps sends volunteers around the globe, to more than 70 countries, to work with governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in the areas of education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment. 

The program officially has three goals: 

• To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers
  
• To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
  
• To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans 

The Peace Corps works by first announcing its availability to foreign governments. These governments then determine areas in which the organization can be involved. The organization then matches the requested assignments to its pool of applicants and sends those volunteers with the appropriate skills to the countries that first made the requests.