Taipei – October 10, 2023. The annual Yushan Forum, which brings together scholars and experts from Taiwan and abroad to discuss regional development and cooperation, started on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Tuesday.

The seventh edition of the forum, which will last for two days, will be attended by representatives from several countries targeted by Taiwan’s new southward policy, as well as representatives from Nauru, the United States and Japan.

As explained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the theme of the 2023 Yushan Forum is: “Starting a new blueprint for Asia’s development.”

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will speak at the opening of the forum, while Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) will speak at a roundtable discussion the following day, the Foreign Ministry said.

According to the ministry, Nauru President Russ Joseph Kun, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, former US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft and Chairman of the Japanese-Ukrainian Consultative Council of Parliamentarians Keiji Furuya, among others, took part.

The Yushan Forum, launched in 2017 as part of the government’s new southern policy, was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Taipei-based NGO Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation.

The policy, launched in 2017 by the current Democratic Progressive Party government, aims to improve exchanges between Taiwan and neighboring Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, as well as India, Australia and New Zealand.