Thursday 18 January, 2007

Speaker leads delegation to Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum

The Speaker, Hon Margaret Wilson, will lead New Zealand’s delegation at next week’s Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Moscow. She will be accompanied by MPs Tim Barnett (Labour), Hon Brian Donnelly (NZ First), Lindsay Tisch and David Bennett (both National).

The Forum’s first preparatory meeting was in Singapore in 1991 and the inaugural meeting followed in Tokyo in 1993 where it was agreed to promote dialogue among parliamentarians of the Asia Pacific region.

Ms Wilson said Asia Pacific is a diverse area with many different political systems, levels of economic development, culture, religion and languages.

The Forum’s programme is broken into four plenary sessions covering political and security matters, economic and trade matters, regional cooperation in Asia Pacific and the Forum’s future work.

Ms Wilson said a highlight will be a meeting with Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation. She will also meet Sergey Mironov, Chairman of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, and Boris Gryzlov, Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

Ms Wilson said the New Zealand delegation to Moscow would do more than participate at this year’s Forum as next year’s event will be held in Auckland.

’It’s a huge honour for New Zealand to be chosen to host such a prestigious gathering of Asia Pacific leaders and my team is determined to fulfil our obligations and ensure that our contributions help build a harmonious and dynamic Asia Pacific.

‘Much has been written and many words have been spoken since that inaugural meeting in Tokyo about the big issues and how they relate to our Asia Pacific region.

‘As the host country next year, New Zealand looks forward to continuing that debate in Auckland from 20 – 25 January, 2008’.

ENDS

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