President U Thein Sein has made a speech praising relations between Africa and Asia at the 60th Asian-African Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference, in Bandung, West Java. H.E. Thein Sein said that he was proud that Myanmar was one of the first five countries to initiate the first Asian-African Conference in 1955, which laid down the 10 Bandung principles that aim to promote peace and cooperation between the two continents. He said that the two continents must work together to help deal with issues such as poverty, underdevelopment, water shortages and natural disasters, through trade, investment, finance and travel.