KATHMANDU, Sept 14: A three-day International Leadership Conference (ILC) that concluded on Sunday endorsed an Asia Pacific Union, offering hope to build peace in the region. 

The virtual conference held amid COVID-19 crisis endorsed the proposal floated by Prof Yeon Ah Moon, who is the President of Universal Peace Federation (UPF), Korea. Addressing the inaugural session of the conference, Prof. Yeon highlighted the importance of creating an Asia Pacific Union as proposed by UPF Co-Founder Mother Moon in Nagoya, Japan in October 2019.

Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, had supported the initiative a month later. The initiative was subsequently endorsed also by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Rally of Hope on August 9, 2020 in front of a worldwide audience of millions. During the ILC deliberations, this idea was referred to by many speakers and recognized in the ILC 2020 Resolution, according to a press statement issued by the UPF. 

Prof Yeon noted that the Atlantic civilization prospered because of its Christian foundation but lost this by becoming a culture that “takes from others and conquers.” 

The Pacific civilization, she explained, is more spiritual and altruistic; it is less individualistic. Prof Moon emphasized that “The ‘Asia Pacific Union’ is based on common cultural values of the Asia-Pacific region: filial piety, family, and faith.”

The global peace conference, “Opportunity and Hope at a Time of Global Crisis: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity and Universal Values” was sponsored by the UPF, an NGO holding general consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations. 

As many as 10,000 people from 81 nations watched from among Asia Pacific rim nations. Three other conferences were held concurrently by UPF chapters in various continental clusters, namely: i) the Americas (North, South and Central), ii) the continents of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and iii) the Asia Pacific. 

Addressing the conference as the chief guest, Former President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena said the difficult times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic are a test for everybody and it is too early to know exactly just how much the post COVID-19 world will be different. "But one thing is for certain, how we react to this crisis will be a key factor in shaping the future of our world,: he said. "I am confident that we are all capable of fighting this pandemic and rebuilding our nations. We need to realize that in crises like these, no country alone is safe, until the rest of the world is safe too."

UPF was founded on September 12, 2005 by the late Rev Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Dr Hak Ja Han Moon in order to advance world peace and support the work of the United Nations. This conference marked the 15thanniversary of founding UPF. It also commemorated the 75thanniversary of establishing the United Nations.

Addressing the conference, career diplomat from India, KV Rajan, called it “a truly wonderful and uplifting experience.” Now retired, he served as a member of the Indian Foreign Service and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. 

Rajan said that the UPF is possibly the one NGO which has the wish, the will, the vision, the means and the institutional underpinnings to assist governments and international bodies like the United Nations in confronting the multiple challenges facing the world across the broad spectrum of human activity.

Conference organizers targeted eight clearly defined audiences: heads of state, parliamentarians, religious leaders, first ladies and women leaders, media professionals, business entrepreneurs, academicians, and youth and students. 

Addressing the media session of the conference, Director of Nepal Republic Media, Shova Gyawali said it is only with a sense of shared responsibility and common determination that true victory with a malicious foe such as COVID-19 will be achieved. “COVID-19 offers an opportunity to us to renew global collaboration and achieve mutual prosperity by bringing all of us together, during and after the pandemic,” she said.

 
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