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S. Yara: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session III-A
Written by Hon. Suos Yara, Chairman of Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Mother of Peace, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, happy birthday. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is indeed my great pleasure to be here at the important Peace Summit 2023 with its thematic focus: “Contemporary Challenges to Global Order: Toward a World Culture of Peace.” It is certainly interesting and relevant for the discussion of contemporary global order and the challenge for peace.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to congratulate UPF for the tremendous effort in mobilizing a worldwide network of professionals to organize this high-level summit and for the sheer number of participants present here—indeed a great success. I am confident that this Summit will serve as an important platform to contribute in a significant way to promote peace, stability and development in the region and beyond.
Actually, peace in our region and the world remains fragile as we have been facing the mounting pressures and challenges due to compounding factors: geopolitical rivalry and arms race, peace and security challenges such as war, civil war, political instability, social unrest, rising nationalism, terrorism, poverty and food insecurity, climate change and natural disasters, contagious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, and the retreat of multilateralism of growth and regionalism. These issues have become more pervasive and intense while provoking various risks that threaten the security, national development and people’s livelihood, particularly in small and weak states, as you see in recent events. In other words, they have the potential to damage human progress at best, and harm the whole human race at worst if left unaddressed. Therefore, we need to increase and diversify our collaboration and partnership with multilateralism at its core to minimize the impact of those threats while enhancing a robust ecosystem.
Excellences, ladies and gentlemen, while we are talking about peace, we must never forget and lose hope of our dream for peace and the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. In this respect, I wholeheartedly support the GPF global family in advancing peace on the Korean peninsula. As we are well aware, the Korean peninsula is inhabited by one people, with one culture, who share a spiritual and historical heritage. With the shared ancestral root and culture, the Korean peninsula should be peacefully reunified for the benefit of the Korean people and beyond.
Importantly, because the two Koreas are the ones that are directly affected by the separation, I believe the reunification process should be led by Koreans and be the Koreans’ own, with the support from all relevant concerned parties. An inclusive process can be a catalyst in achieving a dream of a united family and peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas. I hope two nations toward one state, one peninsula, one culture, one people will become a reality in the future.
Speaking of peace in our time, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is the peace architect of the Mekong, was honored to receive the Sun Hak Peace Prize at the UPF 2022 World Summit here in Seoul. That summit was noteworthy in that to foster peace and shared prosperity for the region and beyond, Prime Minister Hun Sen envisioned the establishment of the Mekong Peace Park not just for the Mekong River nations, but also for the wider Asia Pacific region. Mekong Peace Park could be a model of the unification of North and South Vietnam before 1975, and, for the Cambodians themselves, the Four Fighting Armies could be united as a new kingdom. Thus the Kingdom of Cambodia is at the center of the ASEAN family.
Prime Minister Hun Sen is also well known for his win-win policy, which brought to an end several decades of the civil discord of Cambodia among the brothers. Progress of the Mekong in the region and the advancement of the ASEAN community came to success thanks to the Cambodian peace process and reconciliation. We became a good model that we can share among all of you when you come to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, humanity is living in an indivisible community where people from all countries share a common destiny and become increasingly interdependent. Under this domain, no single country is safe unless everyone is safe and no single country’s security can be guaranteed unless the security of other countries are guaranteed. In this regard, I would like to propose two key takeaways as follows:
One, a universal vision for multilateralism is prevalent featuring joint contributions, shared benefits and win-win cooperation. Indeed, the world needs to be based on a rules-based, inclusive and sustainable multilateralism and the respect of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and productive partnership based on principles of mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual trust and mutual benefit for peace and prosperity. The United Nations charter, especially the principle of equal sovereignty and non-interference, should be recognized as a guiding principle for the rules-based international order.
Two, to achieve peace, we must re-double our efforts to promote peaceful negotiations and dialogue as the foundation of peace and development, not by using a war to end another war, as is happening in Russia and Ukraine. Dialogue must be the solution. Therefore, we need to keep protecting and promoting peace and inclusive prosperity through tolerance, coexistence and nonviolence.
To conclude, I would like to stress that peace is precious across time and space and peace is the precondition for human development and socioeconomic progress. Henceforth, it is essential to promote peace for our present and future generations. The young generation could be a bridge for the future. Therefore, give the youth a chance to practice peace from the beginning before they are doomed to fail and fall into war. Thank you very much.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.