Megawati's grand tour hits Vietnam

Megawati began her tour on Tuesday with talks in Manila with President Arroyo

By staff and wires

HANOI, Vietnam -- Indonesia's new President Megawati Sukarnoputri arrived in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, Wednesday on the second leg of her whirlwind "getting to know you" tour of Southeast Asian nations.

Megawati, installed as president last month following the forced removal of her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, is visiting each of the other nine member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in just eight days.

She began her tour Tuesday with a visit the Philippines where she held talks with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

MEGA'S MEGATOUR The Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia... ... and back to Indonesia on Aug 28

She is due to head for Laos Wednesday afternoon after talks with Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.

In Manila her talks focused on a broad range of issues as well as briefing the Philippine leader on her plans for dealing with Indonesia's massive social and economic problems.

The two leaders also touched on the striking parallels that have marked their political careers -- both are daughters of former presidents who themselves then came to power in similar dramatic circumstances within six months of each other.

They also both preside over populous island nations facing similar levels of poverty and political problems and burdened by separatist rebellions.

"President Megawati and I agreed that, because our fathers . . . were like brothers, we should also be like sisters, supporting each other as we seek solutions to problems that we inherited in our respective nations," Arroyo said after the talks.

"As we honor her and the Indonesian people, we reminisce the common struggles we share against poverty, oppression and injustice," Arroyo said.

'Photo-op'

IN-DEPTH Shadows over Indonesia     COUNTRY PROFILE At a glance: Indonesia Provided by CountryWatch.com   VIDEO CNN's Atika Shubert has more on the plans of Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri (August 21) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

However, despite these similarities, some Philippine observers cast doubt on whether the two leaders would actually find anything concrete to bring out of them.

"It's just a photo-op," political analyst Nelson Navarro told the Associated Press.

"It's good to look at these two women leaders as symbols but we should not overdraw or expect too much from this," he said.

"In the end, both . . . face very serious problems at home separately."

Megawati's ASEAN tour comes less than a month after taking office -- a move which is being seen by some as unnecessarily risky, and by others as displaying confidence in her ability to weather the troubles she faces at home.

Indonesian officials, however, say it is a tradition that newly installed ASEAN heads of state tour their neighbors soon after taking office to ensure that the maintain the unity of the organization and get to know each other.

Reuters contributed to this report.