YUDHOYONO LEAVES BOSTON FOR JAKARTA

Boston, Sept 29 (ANTARA) - Visiting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his entourage left Boston, Massachusetts, for Jakarta on Tuesday night.

After concluding his one-week visit to the United States cities of Pittsburgh and Boston, the president was seen off by Indonesian Ambassador to the US Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat and Consul General in New York Trie Edi Mulyani at Boston's Logan international airport.

Garuda Indonesia jetliner Airbus A330-340 carrying President Yudhoyono and his entourage took off from Logan international airport in Boston at 9 p.m. local time, and was scheduled to arrive at Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma airport on Thursday afternoon.

Before leaving for Jakarta, President Yudhoyono took a few hours of his time on Tuesday afternoon to give a lecture titled "Toward Harmony Among Civilizations" at John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University.

After the lecture, President Yudhoyono opened questions and answers session with the Harvard University students and academics.

The questions addressed to President Yudhoyono were related to the Balibo incident in East Timor when four Australian journalists were killed, the notion that the president of Indonesia should have a military background, Asean integration, discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims in Indonesia, the Iranian nuclear issue, Indonesia's support for democratic reform in Myanmar, and the existence of Jammah Islamia in Indonesia.

During his four-day visit to Boston, President Yudhoyono had a series of meetings with various parties to discuss issues related to business, trade, investment, and effort to improve Indonesia's competitive power.

While in Pittsburgh from September 24-25, 2009, President Yudhoyono also attended the third summit of G-20 which is made up of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Britain, the United States, South Korea, and the European Union.

G-20 has 85 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and is home to two thirds of the global population.