APA ADMITS INDIA, KAZAKHSTAN AS MEMBERS

Bandung, West Java, Dec. 10 (ANTARA) - The Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) at its fourth Plenary Session here on Thursday officially admitted India and Kazakhstan into its membership.

"The Session has decided to give membership status to India and Kazakhstan," Marzuki Alie, APA President, said to the press here on Thursday after the closing of the APA's Fourth Plenary Session.

The APA Fourth plenary session was attended by representatives of 27 member countries including Indonesia, and three observer countries.

The plenary session was also attended by representatives of three observer organizations, namely the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU), the Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States (PUIC) and the International Parliamentary Assembly of the Eurasian Economic Community.

Representatives of Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung Fur Die Freiheit, Hanns Seidel Foundation's Manila office, and Latin American parliament were also present as special guests.

"The total number of participants is 174 people," Marzuki Alies, concurrently Indonesia's House Speaker, said.

The plenary session's last day meeting had to be adjourned when discussing the adoption of APA's Resolution on Palestine because South Korea, Singapore and Russia disagreed on the draft resolution wordings.

However, the resolution was finally adopted after including reservation from the three countries.

The Fourth plenary session also issued a recommendation on "Promoting Interfaith and Intercultural Dialog: The Roles of Parliaments in Preventing Terrorism" initiated by the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI).

The meeting also issued "Bandung Declaration" which focused on contemporary issues such as the promotion of democracy, human rights, climate change, and the role of Asian parliaments in creating peace and justice in the region.
With the inclusion of India and Kazakhstan, APA now has 41 parliaments as members, 18 parliaments and three parliamentary organizations as observers.

The APA was born out of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) in November, 2006, in Tehran.

The establishment of the AAPP goes back to 1999 when a group of Asian parliamentarians decided to join forces toward promoting peace and human rights in Asia.

The Indonesian Parliament (DPR) has been holding the APA presidency since last year.