9th standing committee of ICAPP to meet in Islamabad on March 29
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—The 9th Standing Committee Meeting of International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) will be held here under the auspices of the Senate of Pakistan on March 29, 2008.
It is being held as a prelude to the 5th General Assembly.
The meeting of the Standing Committee will review the political situation in Asia besides approving theme / sub-themes and reviewing preparations for the 5th General Assembly, scheduled to be held here in October this year. The provisional secretariat of the ICAPP has been established at Seoul, South Korea until a decision with respect to establishing the permanent secretariat is made at the 5th General Assembly. The main theme of the 5th General Assembly of the ICAPP scheduled to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan in October 2008 would be “Towards an Asian Century” and the sub themes would be “Reconciliation, Rapprochement, Regionalism and Radicalism.
The ICAPP General Assembly is held very other year and so far four ICAPP General Assemblies have been held. The inaugural international conference of Asian Political Parties was held in Manila, Philippines in September 2000. The second General Assembly was held in Thailand in 2002; the third General Assembly was held in China in 2004 and 4th General Assembly was held in Seoul, South Korea in 2006.
It may be added that the ICAPP is a forum of Asian Political Parties which was created in the year 2000. A total number of 685 Parties from 62 Asian Countries are members of ICAPP. The objectives of the ICAPP are to promote exchange and cooperation between political parties from different Asian Countries with various ideologies; to enhance mutual understanding and trust among the Asian Countries and to promote Regional Cooperation through the unique role and channel of political parties. Eight standing committee meetings of the ICAPP have been held since its inception. The participants countries of the ICAPP have been divided into six regions for the purpose of forming a standing committee, and three standing committee members are selected from each region bringing the prescribed membership for the standing committee to 18. At present, standing committee for the ICAPP consists of 16 members.
The regions of the ICAPP are North East Asia (China, Japan, DPRK, Republic of Korea, Mongolia), South East Asia (Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), West Asia (Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey), Central Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and Oceania (Australia, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Vanuatu).