Jakarta (VNA) – The Vietnamese NationalAssembly has taken timely actions and joined hands with other members of theASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) to contribute to handling emergingissues in the region, said AIPA Secretary General Nguyen Tuong Van.

In an inclusive interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency(VNA) ahead of the 42nd AIPA General Assembly, to be held virtually from August 23-28 by Brunei, the Chair of ASEAN in 2021, Van stressed Vietnam’s initiative to organise athematic conference of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organisation (AIPO) in1999, which promoted the role of legislative agencies in the face of theregional economic and financial crisis.

The Hanoi conference was lauded by the AIPO, she said,adding that it demonstrated the timely participation of the legislativeagencies in ASEAN’s efforts to deal with difficulties.

She also reviewed the 2001-2002 tenure when Vietnamperformed the AIPO Chairmanship for the first time, as well as the country’shosting the 23rd General Assembly of the AIPO and AIPA-32 in Hanoi,with 22 out of 33 approved resolutions initiated by the country, among othercontributions since Vietnam joined AIPO/AIPA 26 years ago.

Vietnam has also made efforts to promote relationsbetween AIPO/AIPA and ASEAN, Van continued.


She took AIPO-23 as an example, where Vietnam – AIPOChair – invited the ASEAN Secretary General to attend the meeting to step upcooperation between the sides.

Notably, representatives from the Inter-ParliamentaryUnion (IPU) have attended the AIPA General Assembly as suggested by Vietnam,Van said, describing this as a significant step to help AIPO/AIPA integrateinto the world.

She also commended Vietnam’s significant contributionsto reforming and improving operational quality of the AIPA Secretariat andpromoting solidarity and unity within the AIPA, as well as cooperation and connectivitywithin ASEAN at large.

The Vietnamese National Assembly always observes ASEAN’sprinciples of ensuring friendship, respecting independence and sovereignty, andnot interfering into internal affairs of each other, while upholding thegrouping’s principle of consensus.

In 2020, the Vietnamese legislature successfullyorganised AIPA-41 via videoconference for the first time given the COVID-19pandemic spread.

The success of the unprecedented meeting has left agood impression on international friends, and served as a source ofencouragement for other AIPA member countries and the Secretariat to organise and participatein online AIPA events, Van said.

According to the AIPA Secretary General, Brunei hasleaned from Vietnam’s experience to organise AIPA-42 and related meetings.  

The Vietnamese NA has worked as a pioneer that hascreatively and flexibly adapted to the new situation, she said./.