The protracted wars and persistent flashpoints across Asia and in many parts of the world continue to carry grave political, humanitarian, and economic consequences.

These conflicts, some frozen and others tragically escalating, obstruct our region’s progress and endanger the stability on which prosperity depends. In an interconnected global economy, violence anywhere ripples everywhere—raising energy and food prices, disrupting supply chains, discouraging investments, and straining public resources. Ultimately, it is the ordinary people who bear the burden—workers, farmers, small entrepreneurs, families seeking security and opportunity.

While regional and global institutions have long worked to promote peace, the complexity of today’s challenges underscores the need to strengthen and augment these efforts. Peace is not only a moral aspiration but an economic necessity. When nations coexist peacefully, governments can shift resources from conflict to education, health, infrastructure,social protection, and other initiatives that uplift communities and expand opportunities.

It is in this spirit that we have spent the last two decades mobilizing Asia’s political groupings through the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) and our national legislatures through the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA). These platforms, built on dialogue and cooperation, have evolved into vibrant arenas for conflict prevention and confidence-building.

Today, ICAPP brings together around 352 political parties—ruling, opposition, and independent—from 52 Asian countries, including major parties in the Philippines. Its Secretariat in Seoul, led by Chairman Chung Eui-yong, former South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Security Adviser, has become an important center for regional political engagement.

We moved the ICAPP Secretariat from Manila, where we founded and launched it in 2000, to Seoul in 2006 as our modest contribution to fostering peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, arguably one of the world’s most sensitive security challenges. South Korea’s leading political parties and North Korea’s Workers’ Party both participate in ICAPP, offering a rare political bridge amid ongoing tensions.

Meanwhile, the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, once the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP), now counts about 40 parliaments as members. At its 2006 meeting in Islamabad, we proposed transforming AAPP into the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) to prepare the groundwork for an eventual Asian Parliament, similar to the European and African models. Later, the transfer of the APA headquarters from Manila to Tehran expanded its reach and encouraged Iran’s deeper engagement with the Asian community.

In 2012, together with former Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, we co-founded the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council (APRC) in Bangkok. APRC brings together former heads of government, parliament leaders, foreign ministers, and senior policymakers to assist states, political groups, and civil society organizations in peace-building and conflict resolution. Its multidisciplinary approach recognizes a vital reality that lasting peace cannot be achieved by governments alone. Faith communities, business leaders, academics, and grassroots organizations all have essential roles in breaking cycles of hostility.

We also helped lead the establishment of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP) in Washington, DC, in December 2016. Unlike APA, which consists of institutional parliaments, IAPP is composed of individual parliamentarians, both former and incumbent, allowing more flexible diplomatic channels.

Across the world today, political, territorial, religious, ideological, and ethnic tensions continue to test our collective resolve. These conflicts disrupt trade, increase poverty, and force millions into displacement. They also highlight the indispensable role of international institutions and civil society movements that tirelessly advocate dialogue over violence.

We can never overstate our need for peace. It is the foundation on which nations grow, economies flourish, and future generations can dream. In these uncertain times, strengthening every avenue for reconciliation—regional, global, governmental, and societal—remains essential if Asia and the world are to move from confrontation to cooperation, and from division to lasting peace.