Page 208 - BUKU STRENGTHENING THE INDONESIAN PARLIAMENTARY DIPLOMACY FADLI ZON

The Role of AIPA in The Age

of ASEAN Community

On behalf of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia, I would like to warmly
welcome you to the 9 ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly Caucus held in the capital of
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Indonesia, Jakarta. AIPA Caucus is a crucial mechanism to ensure that we are doing concrete
efforts to implement the resolutions we have adopted in the General Assembly (GA) and to
explore the possibility of initiatives on issues of common concerns.

We have reached a significant progress of ASEAN development. Many initiatives have been
established to further strengthen our regional community. At the same time, AIPA has delivered
a greater response to such progress. The 37 General Assembly held last year, for example, has
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provided an avenue where many of our members shared their aspiration on ASEAN issues
and reach consensus on constructive outcomes. I am sure that all AIPA Member Parliaments
are committed to implement the resolutions with a view that through our constitutional
parliamentary mandates including the legislative, budgetary, oversight as well as representative
roles, we have made important contribution to develop ASEAN Community under its three
pillars: The Political Security, Economic and Socio-Cultural Pillars.

I believe there have been questions on this year Caucus’ issues. Questions on the number of
working groups that exceeded previous Caucus and the new initiative that we proposed: A
Special Session focusing on the AIPA Capacity. Let me briefly elaborate why we opt to highlight
these issues for the caucus.

The underlying cause for this year Caucus theme entitled Strengthening Maritime Cooperation
and Peaceful Resolution to Conflicts in ASEAN is that we are aware that the ocean is dominating
our region. ASEAN is a region with 80% covered by the sea. Our sea provides opportunities
to strengthen the regional community, an avenue for us to enhance ASEAN inter-state affairs.

Selected Speeches of the Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia I 195