An annual international peace forum kicked off on South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju on Wednesday, with discussions focusing on key security challenges from geopolitical uncertainties and climate change to supply chains.
The ninth Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, set to continue through Friday, comes amid growing geopolitical risks, with the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip posing fresh challenges to the global security environment, along with the expanding military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
Under the theme of “Acting Together for a Better World,” the forum brings together prominent foreign policy experts and former and incumbent figures from the government and private sectors, its organizer said.
More than 3,000 participants from some 30 countries and 30 international organizations will take part in the three-day event.
In a special world leaders’ session, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Kao Kim Hourn, secretary-general of the Association of Sout
heast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will join former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others to discuss international solidarity and cooperation in the face of complex security issues.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), will join the opening session virtually.
Former South Korean foreign ministers, including Song Min-soon and Yun Byung-se, will sit down for discussions on South Korea’s foreign policy achievements and ways to address the current and future challenges as a “global pivotal state,” an initiative being pushed for by the incumbent government of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
A “future forum” on the South Korea-Japan bilateral relations will bring experts and South Korean and Japanese college students together to talk about efforts to move the relationship forward amid the warming of the bilateral ties.
The forum will also feature a session on addressing the roles of provincial governments in foreign policy.
Jeju Gov. Oh Young-hun will invite Liu Xiao
ming, governor of China’s Hainan Province, and Teruya Yoshimi, vice governor of Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, to discuss cooperation efforts to bolster substantive exchanges at the regional government levels.
“I hope that the ninth Jeju Forum will be a meaningful event that solidifies the international community’s will for a better world,” Oh said.
“This forum will serve as an opportunity for us to expand the horizons of regional diplomacy … and to bring about cooperation and responses from the international community toward sustainable prosperity and an era of carbon neutrality,” Oh said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency