BRIEF HISTORY OF APPF Preparatory Meetings The first Preparatory Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum was held at Singapore in August, 1991. Parliamentarians from nine countries, namely, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and the United States attended the meeting. The second enlarged Preparatory Meeting was held at Canberra on 10 and 11 of December, 1991. Thirty-seven parliamentarians attended the meeting from fifteen countries (Australia, Brunei (observer status) Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, the Federated States of Micronesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States). At the Canberra Meeting, the participants decided that the Inaugural Meeting of the APPF be held in 1992 either in Korea or in Japan and that the date be determined by the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee, chaired by the Honorable Yasuhiro Nakasone, and consisting of an ASEAN country (Thailand), Australia, Japan, Korea and the United States, was established to make necessary arrangements for the Inaugural Meeting. In February 1992, upon receiving the message from the Korean participants that Korea would not be able to host the Inaugural Meeting because of its presidential election, which was scheduled to be held in December, the Steering Committee consulted together about the date and venue of the Meeting. Consequently, the Committee decided, with the consensus agreement of the participants of the Canberra Meeting, that the Inaugural Meeting be held in Tokyo on the 14 and 15 of January, 1993.         Milestone Documents     At the Inaugural Meeting in 1993 in Tokyo, the Meeting formally adopted the Tokyo Declaration that officially established the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum as an inter-parliamentary organization, initially comprising 15 founding members. This Declaration sets up the basic organization of the APPF and it is considered its founding charter. The Second Meeting in Manila, Philippines, adopted a resolution covering the rules of procedure to apply in the management of the administrative matters of the APPF. Likewise, the Fourth Annual Meeting held in Thailand in 1994, adopted a resolution on the implementation of a Legislative Exchange System, which was the origin of the APOINT 2001 Operative Plan. Finally, the Fifth Annual Meeting held in 1997 in Vancouver, Canada, adopted the Vancouver Declaration, another essential document which established the vision of the Asia Pacific region in the 21st century, and set the goals of the organization in the six areas of interest of the APPF.