APA Delegation Visited Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe October 7 , 2007

An APA delegation led by His Excellency, Mr. Laksono, the Speaker of the House of Representative of Indonesia and the next President of the APA visited Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from 3 to 5 October 2007. Exchanging views and discussing ways and means for developing further cooperation were main objectives of the visit.

In an address to the Assebly of the Council of Europe, President Laksono said “We in Asia see Europe as a balancing power in a world, that these days, is tending to be dragged into unipolarity. The strength of the European Union should be used for the benefit of alleviating poverty and ensuring economic and political equity - among other means by strengthening the United Nations through the oft-spoken need for reform.”

He then added “Based on that view, the APA has striven and worked whole ­heartedly to overcome the challenges that we face, by relying on common values and ideas. It is on that basis that the APA warmly welcomes co-operation and stronger partnership with other regional institutions, such as the PACE.” See the full text of the speech here>

President Laksono was accompanied by several members of the APA: His Excellency, Dr. Nejad-Hosseinian, the APA Secretary-General; His Excellency, Barrister Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar, the Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament; Honourable Victor Francisco Ortega, Congressman from the Philippines; and Honorable Souleiman Haddad, the Chairman of the Committee on International and Arab Affairs, Syrian Parliament; as well as two other members of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Honorable Abdillah Toha and Honorable Marzuki Dausman.

His Excellency, Dr. Haddad Adel, the APA President, who was initially planned to lead the delegation, canceled his trip due to unavoidable circumstances.