AKP Phnom Penh, September 19, 2025 --

H.E. Suos Yara, M.P., Vice-President of International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace (IPTP), underscored the shared aspirations of the IPTP and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) to champion peace and advance inclusive growth and sustainable development, where people and the Planet are placed at the heart of our active and proactive parliamentary diplomacy and law-making.

“We parliamentarians do serve as a bridge between governments and the people and their able partners, ensuring that diverse voices and their rights and socio-economic wellbeing are meaningfully reflected in national and regional decision-making. This form of collective legislative leadership will further strengthen synergies among parliamentary and inter-parliamentary networks for greater outcomes,” H.E. Suos Yara said in his remarks at the 46th AIPA General Assembly being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He recalled the adoption of the Universal Peace Charter (UPC): For People and the Planet during the 11th Plenary Session of the IPTP held in Phnom Penh last year. Signed and endorsed by over 60 countries and institutions worldwide. UPC has become an open, living document encompassing a comprehensive universal framework of international cooperation in peacebuilding, conflict prevention, transitional justice, food security in response to climate change and digitalization, and post-conflict reconstruction, and several cross-cutting areas.

The IPTP Vice President also commended Malaysia’s crucial role as ASEAN Chair in mediating the ceasefire agreement between Cambodia and Thailand reached on 28 July 2025 in Putrajaya, Malaysia, with the participation of the United States and China in facilitating and observing the full implementation as well as with the international supports including Australia, Japan and European Union.

He further spoke highly of the constructive role of Malaysia in leading the inaugural ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China Summit in May 2025. It marks a new turning point in the history of ASEAN in forging the tripartite partnership, which exemplifies an innovative model of the Global South cooperation to advance and strengthen regional stability and resilience through a win-win cooperation in waves of global geopolitical shifts and uncertainties.

Against this backdrop, in the name of the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace /Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, H.E. Suos Yara called for the expansion and deepening of inter-regional parliamentary and inter-parliamentary cooperation in cultural corridors connectivity as well as in trade, education, technology, and more in promoting the strength of our diversity, synergy resilience toward realising the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and other global visions that foster people-centered outcomes, rule of law, justice and co-existence.

By C. Nika