AIPA calls on India to intensify cooperation with ASEAN

The ASEAN Parliament has called on India to intensify cooperation with Southeast Asian countries in maintaining regional stability particularly by creating peace and fighting terrorism.

As a large country in South Asia, India plays a strategic role in creating regional stability, ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) President Marzuki Alie said in a press statement issued on Tuesday.

Marzuki made the remark during a meeting with chief of Lok Shaba (the House of the People) Meira Kumar at the Indian Parliament building on Monday (July 30).

ASEAN and India had made significant progress in building inter-regional cooperation, Marzuki said.

He appreciated India for participating in a series of consultative meetings with ASEAN, including in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). India also had helped make a road map for ASEAN-India long-term cooperation to create common peace and welfare.

"We have done a lot of things, including signing joint declaration to cooperate in fighting against terrorism. There are still many other things we can do," he said.

Marzuki, who is also the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker said his side has committed itself to promote nuclear-free zone by, among other things, ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Indonesia is the last ASEAN member state to ratify CTBT. Therefore, AIPA called on countries that have yet to ratify it to do so as part of their commitment to promoting regional peace and stability, he said.

"We have agreed that at this point, the future global peace and stability will be in the hands of parliament," he said.

Source: ANTARA