The Second ICAPP was held in Bangkok on November 22-24, 2002. It was hosted by the Thai Rak Thai Party, the party in power in Thailand. More than 230 people attended the conference, including representatives from 77 political parties and organizations and invited government representatives from 35 Asian-Pacific countries, and invited guests from such international organizations as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program. Among them were many prime ministers and parliamentary heads and 24 party chairpersons or general secretaries, including Jose de Venecia, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and Chairman of the LAKAS-CMD; Thaksin Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand and Chairman of the Thai Rak Thai Party; Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia and Leader of the Cambodian People’s Party; Akbar Tanjung, Chairman of Indonesia’s Golkar Party; Wong Kan Seng, Member of the Central Executive Committee of the People’s Action Party and Home Affairs Minister of Singapore; and Gennady Zyuganov, Chairman of the Russian Communist Party. Cai Wu, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the conference as the CPC’s representative .

  The theme of the Second ICAPP was “Promoting Consensus and Enhancing Cooperation.” Discussions among party representatives revolved around the three topics of Economic Cooperation, Regional Security, and Good Governance and Political Participation, and consensus was achieved on a series of issues. Jose de Venecia, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and Chairman of the ICAPP Standing Committee, stressed that the ultimate purpose of a mechanism for multilateral cooperation among Asian political parties is to establish a free, friendly “Asian community” or an “Asian union”for common prosperity that enjoys the support of the various Asian political parties. He proposesd that the main tasks of the Second ICAPP should be to pass the Bangkok Action Program and work to achieve the “Manila targets.” Thaksin, Prime Minister of Thailand and Chairman of the Thai Rak Thai Party, maintained that the key to solving the problems of Asian countries was to start with a spirit of cooperation for mutual benefit, transcend differences and find a way to get along together and at the same time to sketch a development model that is suitable to the unique environment and background of Asia’s developing countries, is feasible, and reflects Asia’s realities and new changes in the world. Cai Wu, representative of the CPC to the Conference and Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, gave a widely acclaimed speech at the conference entitled “Promoting International Cooperation Between Political Parties and Working Hand in Hand to Build a New Asia,” in which he made constructive proposals for the direction in which cooperation among Asian political parties should develop.

  The Conference released the Bangkok Declaration, which stresses that Asian political parties need to devote themselves to promoting economic partnerships among their countries and cooperatively participate in establishing an equitable world trading system. Poverty is one of the important challenges facing Asia today, and every country should draw up a strategy for sustainable development and draw on the successful experience some countries have achieved in alleviating poverty. Asia should deepen economic reforms, improve financial and fiscal regulation, and continue to improve mechanisms for preventing economic crises. Asia needs to strengthen regional and international anti-terrorism cooperation and strengthen anti-terrorism mechanisms, support the enactment of an international anti-terrorism convention, support the role of the UN in the global fight against terrorism, and build up international confidence in Asia’s safety for economic activities. The Declaration supports the proposals and efforts to establish a mechanism to mediate and prevent regional conflicts and appeals for the establishment of a regional network to crack down on such transnational crimes as human and drug trafficking. It also stresses respect for human rights and human dignity, insurance of citizens’ full participation in political processes and encouragement for government reform. The Declaration constitutes an important framework for promoting the development of close and sincere relations between Asian political organizations, increasing mutual understanding and trust between them and safeguarding regional peace, stability, harmony and prosperity.

  The Bangkok conference was another major international conference of Asian political parties since the Manila conference in 2000. The conference not only greatly increased the international cooperation and multilateral contacts between Asian political parties and established a forum for friendly cooperation between them, but also created the mechanism for regularly holding of such conferences every other year. Compared with the First ICAPP, the Second ICAPP achieved more concrete results and made significant progress in various areas. The influence of the ICAPP continued to grow; the number of political parties involved increased; and the party rank of their conference representatives rose considerably. All the political parties participating in the conference also attached greater importance to the unique role political parties play in promoting cooperation in Asia. They all clearly view mechanisms of multilateral cooperation between political parties as the “third track” of promoting regional cooperation. The CPC, as the largest political party in Asia, played a very positive role at the Second ICAPP and earned the trust and admiration of the representatives of all the Asian political parties, and many political parties expressed the hope that the Third ICAPP would be held in China.