Annan to Romulo: UN behind RP interfaith dialogue initiative

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan gave his full support on Friday to the Philippine-led interfaith initiative and the plan to hold the Tripartite Conference for Interfaith Cooperation for Peace next month.

Annan assured the UN will support the Philippines’ interfaith initiative in the launching of the Tripartite Conference.

The Philippines took the initiative to launch the tripartite conference at the UN Headquarters in New York to be led by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.

"I had a very frank and fruitful discussion with the Secretary-General. He was upbeat and very supportive of our interfaith initiatives, including our plan to hold the Tripartite Conference in June," Romulo said.

Annan also expressed optimism about the Philippine government’s peace efforts and pledged his support for the anti-terrorism bill pending approval in Philippine Congress.

"Mr. Annan gave his full support for our peace process and I briefed him on our progress. He expressed optimism and confidence in our success. I thanked him for the political support for our efforts to achieve peace," Romulo said.

Romulo expressed his gratitude to the UN chief for sending a technical team to the Philippines to assist in the drafting of the counter-terrorism law.

"He said that the UN fully supports the efforts of individual governments to fight terrorism," Romulo said.

He said the Philippine-led initiative giving importance to the role of religion in the quest for world peace gained ground with more countries, faith-based organizations and the UN agencies throwing full support to ongoing efforts to promote interfaith dialogue.

Romulo reported to President Arroyo that the Philippine initiative for a tripartite conference in New York next month received enthusiastic response.

Mrs. Arroyo has been leading interfaith dialogues in the country as a means to build national and international consensus.

The Tripartite Conference, which the Philippines is spearheading jointly with Pakistan and Indonesia, will be held on June 22.

Representatives from 12 countries, several inter-faith based organizations and UN agencies also expressed their support for an informal high-level meeting on interfaith cooperation to be held on the sidelines of the Leaders’ Summit at the 60th UN General Assembly in September.

Romulo cited the efforts made by Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Morocco, Argentina and the United States.

Along with civil society groups and UN agencies, Romulo said there is a collective response to conduct and promote an interfaith dialogue.

"I believe that the tripartite partnership we have forged is unprecedented. We have charted a historic way forward in engaging civil society as well as the UN system in the common pursuit of peace, the fundamental goal enshrined in the UN Charter," Romulo said.

The Philippines has been actively promoting interfaith dialogue and cooperation.

Its efforts led to the unanimous adoption last year of a General Assembly resolution on the promotion of inter-religious dialogue, which was co-sponsored by 24 countries.