Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue of Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA), the country’s highest legislative body, will attend the 42nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA)’s General Assembly held by Brunei next week.

The series of AIPA-42 video conferences on August 23-25 would be Hue’s first multilateral activity since he was sworn in July 2021.

Chairman of Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue at a meeting on August 16 to prepare for AIPA-42. Photo: VOV

The Vietnamese speaker is expected to promote cooperation among AIPA members and ASEAN countries in the fight against Covid-19 with a focus on vaccine sharing.

The AIPA membership covers the National Parliaments of 10 ASEAN member states namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

AIPA, formerly the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) set up in 1977with the motto “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”, has reached a consensus to transform the organization into a more effective and closely integrated institution.

AIPA aims to encourage understanding, cooperation, and close relations among Member Parliaments as well as Observer Member Parliaments and other parliamentary organizations. AIPA also plays an instrumental role in familiarizing the peoples of Southeast Asia, with policies aimed at accelerating the realization of an ASEAN Community in 2025.

Dialogue with Observer Member Parliaments is convened at every General Assembly, and to date, AIPA held an annual dialogue with 14 Observer Member Parliaments from Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, European Parliament, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Norway, Russia, and Timor Leste.

Vietnam became an AIPA member in 1995 and it hosted the 41st AIPA General Assembly in 2020 via virtual conferences.