Soenario | |
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Sunario (right) with British leader Clement Attlee in 1954
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Foreign Minister of Indonesia | |
In office 1953–1955 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Madiun, East Java |
28 August 1902
Died | 18 May 1997 | (aged 94)
Nationality | Indonesian |
Profession | Diplomat |
Soenario (28 August 1902 – 18 May 1997), also spelled Sunario, was Indonesia's minister of foreign affairs from 1953 to 1955.
Born in Madiun, East Java, Soenario was educated at Leiden University in the Netherlands and was a founder of Perhimpunan Indonesia (in at least one source referred to as Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Indonesia), an Indonesian students' organization, while studying at the Faculty of Law. He returned to Java in the late 1920s and established a private law practice in Bandung, while becoming active in Sukarno's Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia, later renamed Partai Nasional Indonesia. In 1928, he was Bandung's delegate to the Second Indonesian Youth Congress in Batavia, where he would meet his future wife, Dina Maria Geraldine Maranta Pantouw, then the delegate from Manado.
On 30 July 1953, Soenario was appointed minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet of the prime minister Ali Sastroamidjojo. Soenario had a key role in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement and was an essential participant in the Asian-African Conference in 1955. On 23 April 1955, Soenario and Zhou Enlai, premier of the People's Republic of China, signed a treaty ending the dual nationality of the Chinese living in Indonesia. Under the treaty, citizens of Chinese origin would have to choose within two years whether they have Chinese or Indonesian nationality.
From 1956 to 1961, Soenario was Indonesia's ambassador to the Court of St. James's, then chancellor of Diponegoro University in Semarang from 1963 to 1966. On 15 August 1985, he was awarded the Bintang Mahaputra Adipradana, Second Class, one of Indonesia's highest civilian awards.