3rd ICAPP: Strong Urge For Collective Positioning

Sitaram Yechury

FROM September 3 to 5, 2004, the third International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) was held in Beijing, China.  The conference was hosted by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

This conference saw the largest participation of political parties from Asian countries so far since the first conference, which took place in 2000 in Manila, Philippines. 

The conference was intended to be a platform for interaction and exchange of views between the various political parties in the Asia Pacific region.  The participation, therefore, ranged from the countries of the West Asia to Australia and New Zealand. 

The very composition of such a conference meant that political parties with different ideological persuasions were present. In many cases, the ruling parties of the country along with the opposition parties, the Left, the right, the liberal democratic, the centrist parties of various shades were all present. It is, indeed, natural that such a gathering could agree only on certain broad parameters affecting the interests of the countries and peoples of the region.

The theme of the conference, therefore, was titled as “Exchange Cooperation and Development”.  At the end of the conference, the participants adopted the “Beijing Declaration, 2004”.  (See the full text of the declaration given along with this piece.)

Many parties saw such a conference as the opportunity for developing closer cooperation amongst the countries of the Asian continent in the present phase of economic globalisation.  There was a serious urging for a concerted and collective position to be taken by the countries of the Asian continent in multilateral treaty negotiations like the WTO etc. It is only natural that there would be differences on perceptions on how these were to be achieved.  It was, however, felt that with the two most populous countries of the world belonging to this region, with some of the fastest growing economies in the world like China, the industrial potential of Japan, the economies of the former Asian Tigers, with the oil rich countries of West and Central Asia, a collective positioning of the countries of the Asian continent can act as a powerful aid in the defence of the interests of the peoples of the region in meeting the onslaughts of economic globalisation.  Much of this was reflected in the declaration. However, given the limitations mentioned above, this declaration must be seen as a compromise document amongst parties with varying ideological persuasions and world outlooks. 

The Communist Party of China played the role of the perfect host.  The delegations were received by the president of the People’s Republic of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Jintao.  While the conference was declared open by Liu Yunshan, member of the Political Bureau of the central committee of the CPC and chairman of the organising committee of the third ICAPP, the key note speech was delivered by Zeng Qinghong, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the central committee of the CPC, vice president of the State and honorary chairman of the organising committee of the third ICAPP. 

Other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC such as Liu Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the central committee of the CPC and secretary of Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Liu Yunshan, member of the Political Bureau of the central committee of the CPC and chairman of the organising committee of the third ICAPP were actively associated with the conference. 

Of the 82 political parties from 34 countries that participated in the conference, there were 18 Communist and Left parties from 17 countries. The conference, therefore, also provided a platform for interactions between the Communist and Workers Parties.