We acknowledge:

6. The special importance of the Declaration of Commitment adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 27 June 2001 and undertake, to the fullest of our ability, to implement all the commitments and achieve all the targets set out in it;
7. The UN Millennium Declaration of 8 September 2001, and the Millennium Development Goals contained therein;
8. The value of previous regional deliberations on the issue of HIV/AIDS, most recently the Resolution 5711 entitled "Regional Call for Action to fight Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in Asia and the Pacific", adopted by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific on 25 April 2001;
9. The Statement of Commitment on HIV/AIDS of the Regional Steering Committee of First Ladies (Asia-Pacific) agreed on 7 October 2001 in Melbourne, Australia, addressing the profound impact of the epidemic on the population of rural and island women, the special vulnerability of women and girls because of their high levels of poverty and illiteracy, and acknowledge that the empowerment of women is essential for reducing their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS;
10. The epidemic affects all people and that infection rates are likely to increase unless stronger action is taken to address, in an integrated manner which includes harm reduction approaches, including prevention of unsafe sexual practices, factors that make individuals vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, such as poverty, economic underdevelopment, all types of sexual exploitation including commercial sex, high rates of sexually transmitted infections, trafficking, injecting and illicit drug use, gender disparities, youth concerns and population movements;
11. The commonalities and differences between the peoples and countries in the Asia Pacific region, including geographical, cultural, religious, economic and social situations that influence the impact of HIV/AIDS in our countries, and agree that these issues must be recognised but must not hamper prevention, treatment, care and support in our countries;
12. The successes some countries in the Asia Pacific region have had in combating the epidemic, leading to a reduction of HIV prevalence, and agree that the lessons learnt from these strategies, and in particular the approaches to prevention, will be shared with other countries for implementation in future strategies;