BANGKOK, November 26. /TASS/. The annual session of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) ended in Manila on Sunday. It yielded ten resolutions on the most pressing international matters, the Philippine News Agency reported.
According to the news agency, the resolutions call for strengthening the potential of the member countries’ parliaments to ensure peace and stability, for settling the situation on the Korean Peninsula, for combating transnational crime, expanding regional cooperation in the areas of climate change and sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region.
Russia was represented by members of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Andrey Denisov, Lyudmila Skakovskaya, Lyudmila Talabayeva, Alexander Trembitsky, and members of the State Duma (lower house) Igor Ananskikh, Sholbak Kara-ool, Dmitry Novikov, and Vladimir Plyakin. The Russian lawmakers held talks with their colleagues from Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral relations, a source in the Russian delegation told TASS.
The APPF inaugural session was held in Tokyo in January 1993. It adopted the Tokyo Declaration, which outlines basic area of the organization’s activity. The organization’s mission is to expand cooperation between the member countries in the interests of peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region, promote trade and investments, establish regional cooperation in such areas as environment protection, combating transnational crime and terrorism, carry out cultural and educational exchanges.
The APPF members are 28 countries, namely, Russia, Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.
The APPF holds its plenary sessions annually. Thailand held presidency of the APPF 30th session in 2022. The 15th session was held in Moscow in 2007.