The agenda of the Bogor Conference was to determine the purposes, timing, and participants of the Asian-African Conference. The five Southeast Asian countries agreed that China and Japan should participate in the Asian-African Conference, but some countries also insisted on the participation of US allies such as Thailand and the Philippines.

Zhou discusses the need to make agreements at the Geneva conference in order to open a path for discussion and negotiation with the west. Zhou notes that because the US, France and Britain are not united in their opinions, the CCP must hold fast to their positions on the peaceful unification of Korea, and of peace in Indochina. Finally, Zhou suggests that the CCP prepare to discuss issues of trade, relaxing international tensions, and breaking the US embargo, although these issues are not on the agenda.

The UK responded the decision of inviting China to attend the Asian-African Conference with anger, stating that countries in the Bogor Conference had wrong expectations toward China. The US feared that China would have great influence on the Asian-African Conference and thus weaken US influence in the region. The US and UK also worried that China’s participation would improve China-Japan relations. French press expressed this decision as the evidence of the failure of the US power in Southeast Asia.

The participants in the Asian-African Conference had the common interest in pursuing international peace and national economic and cultural development. China should take the advantage of this Conference to promote national independence movement and to establish stronger relations with Asian and African countries. According to this goal, the plan listed the common issues that all participants faced, the issues that existed between China and other countries, and the issues that China alone was facing. It also spelled out the relations of China and different groups of counties in the Conference, as well as the logistic issues.

Experts gave opinions on the Asian-African Conference regarding agenda, strategies, and other logistic issues, basically stating that China had to focus on the adoption of principal issues, not substantial issues, and to show other countries that China was a peace-loving country.