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.

The CCP informs Wei Guoqing et al that while Molotov, Eden, and Smith are absent, the conference will discuss military issues regarding Indochina. Zhou has met with Molotov about this, and wants to meet with several Chinese and Vietnamese officials.

Zhou reports on his meeting with the four partner delegations to bid farewell to Comrade Nam Il and to discuss the proposals of Laos and Cambodia. Also, Zhou discusses the three points of agreement both sides made during the sixteenth restricted session on Indochina.

Mendes-France and Zhou discuss the Indochina issue during their first meeting together. Both men feel they are in agreement with each other regarding several points (establishing a cease-fire before discussing political issues, that no US military bases should be established in Indochina, elections in Cambodia and Laos, cooperation between France and Vietnam and between the two sides in Vietnam). They end on a positive note, both certain that their few differences of opinion will be worked out.

Comrade Pavel Yudin asks the CCP to inform Comrade Ho Chi Minh that the discussion at the upcoming conference in Geneva will include the Korea question and restoring peace in Indochina.

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.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry report on three sets of issues facing the Asian-African Conference.

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.