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K. Sudary: Address to World Summit 2020
Written by Hon. Khuon Sudary, Second Vice President, National Assembly of Cambodia
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Address to World Summit 2020, Seoul, Korea, February 3-8, 2020
Honorable Hak Ja Han Moon, Co-Founder of the Universal Peace Federation, Honorable Heads of State and Government, Honorable Speakers, Deputy Speakers of Parliament, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I am pleased to attend the World Summit 2020, especially to be back in Seoul, together with global leaders, including heads of state, government and civil society organizations. In my humble opinion, the Summit will provide a venue for all of us to charter an enduring path for lasting peace and sustainable development for humanity.
As we gather today with the aim to realize a world of lasting peace through interdependence, mutual prosperity and universal values, the world is undergoing massive transformations – international migration on the one hand and global power shifts on the other. Constant power competition by major superpowers and the division of political blocks via strategic alliances for the sake of their divergent interest rather than common interest have rendered disunity among nations and societies across regions.
Extreme nationalism and populism, to some extent, which has been seen growing over the past five years, have been accompanied by protectionism and unilateralism. Such issues and challenges of global significance are many. In addition, I would like to take a moment to highlight some of social risks we are facing: As we speak, millions of people across the globe are living in fear, poverty, hunger, violence, and under constant threats of climate change, as well as the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus and the spread of other global epidemics.
The biggest question is not about what and how; it is about the will to bring about positive peace that paves the way for social and economic development based on rules of law and respect for universal values.
The world needs to recognize the world leaders as well private individuals who have in the past devoted their life and have achieved tremendous success in achieving peace.
For Cambodia, complete peace only came to prevail after many years of the national reconciliation process, known as the Win-Win Strategy of Samdech Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The best part of the Win-Win Strategy is that it contains peaceful reconciliation – the one without the loss of anyone’s life, and the assurance of political and social stability via the effective reintegration of different fighting factions into the national army.
Once and for all, peace cannot be purchased at the marketplace, but it is only brought about through bold determination and wise leadership, such as that of Samdech Techo Hun Sen. Since the realization of complete peace and national reconciliation in 1998, Cambodia has become one of the highest-growing economies in the world, with an annual economic growth of over 7 percent over the past two decades through on-going governance reforms and people-centered development strategies.
The experience of Cambodia in bringing peace and national reconciliation through the Win-Win Strategy of Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen has also led to unity in the Mekong subregion and a greater community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
I take note of the importance of our roles and duties as parliamentarians to help address these global challenges of our time. To my understanding, we can, and need to, work alongside the governments, private sector, and civil society to not only end violence and social injustice, but to also abolish causes of wars, civil wars, hatred, and all made-made calamities at all costs and by all means.
While I am optimistic of the prospect for the future of human civilization, I would strongly suggest we harness the young future leaders to build a prosperous and sustainable future for the next generations. In this spirit, we parliamentarians need to join hands with governments and civil societies to develop the capacities and capabilities of our global future leaders and to build a strong foundation for them to carry out a legislative agenda that aims to promote peace, protect minorities, promote gender equality, and prevent triggers of conflicts and wars in the first place.
We parliamentarians, through the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP), can play an important role in international peacebuilding activities through our direct participation in international bodies. We can catalyze strong civil society organizations and media to promote peace, ratify and enforce regional arms control agreements, and prevent arms race and weaponization.
All in all, the world should come together to abolish political and economic sanctions, since sanctions have neither restored trust nor promoted understanding to resolve the differences among nations.
In order to build and sustain global lasting peace, I urge that we all strive to promote and respect a strong and predictable global order and an open, inclusive, and rules-based multilateralism based on the following five principles: (i) mutual respect, (ii) mutual understanding, (iii) mutual trust, (iv) mutual interest, and (v) mutual prosperity.
In closing, I wish Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen the greater successes in all future endeavors.
Thank you!
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