The successful closing of the Third International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) enhanced mutual understanding and friendship among the Asian parties, which was surely an important fruit of the "political party diplomacy" pursued by the Communist Party of China (CPC), said experts and delegates on Sunday.

The conference was a major event not only in the history of the CPC, but also in the history of the Chinese diplomacy. Its success has fully demonstrated more significant roles that the "political party diplomacy" is playing in the state-to-state diplomacy and also showed the CPC's capability in communicating with the world, said Li Zhongjie, researcher with the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, in an interview with Xinhua.

Li said: "Most Asian countries are governed by political parties. Therefore the exchanges between the political parties become an important means of communication and exchanges among countries. Despite they are in power or not, they need to maintain relationship with each other in order to keep advancing."

He noted that the number of participants in this conference surpassed that of the previous two conferences, which fully shows that the CPC's principles handling its relations with other political parties conform to the actual situation. Its diplomatic policy has been widely acknowledged by Asian political parties.

Jose De Venecia, speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, stressed that the exchanges between the political parties are one of the effective ways to solve regional conflicts and realize peace and development.

In the Beijing Declaration approved by the conference, he said, the Asian political parties agreed to further strengthen political and economic cooperation so as to face up to the challenges of the 21st century.

In this sense, the conference has fully completed its historic mission, he added.

All parties were friends at this conference. They were sitting together peacefully, including those who are even in conflict on some issues. "It was the greatest achievement of the conference," said Rainer Gepperth with the German Hanns Seidel Foundation which was one of the initiators of ICAPP.

Initiated in 2000, the first two ICAPP conferences were held in the Philippines and Thailand in September 2000 and November 2002, respectively. Representatives from 81 political parties or organizations of 35 Asian countries attended the three-day meeting which began Friday in Beijing. It was the first of its kind hosted by the CPC.

With the theme of "Exchanges, Cooperation and Development", the participants exchanged views on regional security, multilateral cooperation, economic growth and social progress, political party building and national development, and reached consensus on wide-range of issues in the "Beijing Declaration" adopted Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2004)