The world today continues to suffer from conflicts and confrontations. U.S.-China strategic competition is now expanding beyond trade conflicts and is deepening the global political divide. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine War also shows no sign of ending. U.S.-China decoupling has worsened supply chain disruptions in the Indo-Pacific region, and potential security threats have started to become a reality. Tensions in the Taiwan Strait have been higher than ever, and North Korea is continuing to miniaturize nuclear weapons and upgrade projectiles. Moreover, the conflict over historical issues between Korea and Japan remains unresolved.
In the post-Cold War era, the Indo-Pacific region enjoyed a period of economic prosperity and rapid development. It now accounts for 65 percent of the world's population and more than 60 percent of the world's economy, and maritime trade in the region has grown to more than half of the world's total. As the fastest-growing region in the world, the Indo-Pacific will need to enhance cooperation to address deepening security threats and achieve sustainable peace and prosperity.

Amid deepening security threats in the Indo-Pacific, the region will need to enhance cooperation and identify opportunities to achieve sustainable peace and prosperity. The 18th Jeju Forum brought together leaders and experts from government, business, and civil society to collaborate and provide solutions to address multiple crises in the region.
The keynote speakers were Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Han Duck-soo, President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Kim Jinpyo, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, and Under-Secretary-General for UN Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary A. DiCarlo.
The main participants were Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, the United States Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg, Ambassadors to ROK from 35 countries, 20 members of the National Assembly, 100 members of parliament, and a delegation of businessmen from ASEAN countries.

Today, the world is mired in multiple conflicts and crises, from the Russo-Ukrainian war to the US-China rivalry, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change. Proposing coexistence and cooperation as its core agenda, the seventeenth forum sought to chart a roadmap to peace beyond conflict and served as a platform for public discussion.
The keynote speakers were the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Han Duck-soo, President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta, former President of Indonesia Megawati Sukarnoputri, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan, and Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas in UN DPPA Khaled Khiari. The main participants were the Director of ICBL-CMC Hector Guerra (ICBL-1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate), and International Steering Group Member of ICAN Maria Eugenia Villarreal (ICAN-2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate).

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jeju Forum has carried on the tradition of opening up to the public and participants across borders, leading the discourse on sustainable peace and prosperity. In particular, this year’s forum celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the South Korea–Soviet summit on Jeju in 1991, which gave birth to the idea of designating Jeju as “The Island of World Peace” and revisited what the end of the Cold War implied for peace in Northeast Asia.
The keynote speakers were Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Kim Boo-kyum, former President of France François Hollande, former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, and former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. The main participants were Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford Archie Brown, Professor of MIT Abhijit Banerjee (2019 Nobel Prize in Economics laureate), former Professor of Freie University at Berlin Werner Pfennig, former President of the Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev (1990 Nobel Peace Prize laureate), and former President of Republic of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos (2016 Nobel Peace Prize laureate).