Vietnam will join regional countries to practically contribute to common efforts to raise the role of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in the process of building a peaceful, stable, cooperative and prosperous ASEAN Community.

Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung made the statement at the first plenary session of the 32 nd General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-32) in Phnom Penh on September 20.

He stressed that the Vietnamese NA delegation agreed with the AIPA-32 theme, “The role of AIPA in building a prosperous ASEAN Community”, saying that ASEAN has seen remarkable changes towards a common community in 2015 as well as promoted dialogue, cooperation and connectivity for regional peace, stability and development.

Besides advantages, ASEAN is facing a lot of challenges, including the on-schedule completion of the roadmap of building the ASEAN Community and the effective settlement of emerging challenges, he noted.

The top Vietnamese legislator suggested that in this important period, AIPA should actively boost dialogue, strengthen trust, promote solidarity and consensus in solving disputes peacefully as well as speed up the effective implementation of cooperative mechanisms and tools in the region.

“AIPA should support ASEAN in expanding and deepening ties with its partners to create a favourable environment for building the community, boosting regional connectivity and narrowing the development gap,” he said.

Hung also emphasised the necessity for close coordination between AIPA and ASEAN in consolidating and strengthening the central role of ASEAN in the evolving regional architecture for the common goal of peace, stability and development as well as in effectively dealing with arising challenges.

The Vietnamese NA leader congratulated Myanmar on its official membership to AIPA, which he said marks a strong and important development of AIPA with the participation of ten ASEAN countries.

In his opening speech, Heng Samrin, President of the Cambodian National Assembly and President of AIPA, said that Cambodia would try its best to turn the AIPA 32 General Assembly into a milestone of the AIPA process, creating favourable conditions for exchange of information and viewpoints and promoting integration.

He said that Cambodia wishes to build the inter-parliamentary organisation of peace, to provide a mechanism for settlement of disputes in the region and strengthen trust among ASEAN nations.

Heng Samrin proposed to set up a supervision committee with representatives from ASEAN parliaments and have an AIPA parliamentary group for providing consultancy and conduct regular examination of the implementation of AIPA agreements.

He expressed his belief that AIPA 32 would be an ideal opportunity for participating delegations to contribute initiatives towards effective cooperation to bring member countries closer in coping with common challenges.
Cambodian Senate President Chea Sim affirmed that AIPA 32 provides an opportunity to promote the role of the regional inter-parliamentary organisation in building a prosperous community. Through its agenda, ASEAN parliaments will discuss and work out measures to cope with problems of maintaining peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

President Chea Sim expressed his wish that AIPA 32 would build a cooperative mechanism to prevent terrorism, transnational crime, drug crime and other violent actions.

AIPA-32 is being held from Sept. 18 to 24 in Cambodia, with participation of the heads of all parliaments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and observers from Australia, Canada, China, the European Parliament, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States./.