Former Polish president, ex-Fijian PM to speak at 2026 Yushan Forum

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) Former Polish President Lech Wałęsa and former Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry are among the foreign guests set to attend an annual international forum in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Sunday.

Other prominent figures set to take part in the MOFA-funded forum include Keiji Furuya, head of the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council, which promotes Taiwan-Japan parliamentary-level exchanges; Gustavo Villate, Paraguay's minister of information and communication technologies; and Lee Jun-seok, leader of South Korea's Reform Party, MOFA said in a press release.

Also attending the conference, which will be held from Monday to Tuesday, are Jonathan T. Fried, Canada's former ambassador to the WTO; Christoph Heusgen, former chair of the Munich Security Conference; Liam Fox, the former United Kingdom secretary of state for international trade; and Leni Robredo, mayor of Naga City, who served as vice president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022.

President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) will both speak at the forum on Monday, MOFA added.

This year's forum will be held under the theme "Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan's Values, Technology, and Resilience," aimed at promoting regional collaboration through solutions "based on Taiwan's values and incorporating technology and resilience," according to the forum's website.

The Yushan Forum, launched in 2017, aims to strengthen Taiwan's exchanges with partners under the New Southbound Policy, which was introduced by former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2016 to boost trade, investment and people-to-people ties with 18 countries in ASEAN, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.