China to hold third world peace forum

The third World Peace Forum (WPF) will be held at Beijing's Tsinghua University on June 21 and 22, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Thursday.

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi will address the opening ceremony of the WPF, Hua told a daily news briefing.

Organized by Tsinghua University in partnership with the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, the forum is China's first high-level non-governmental seminar focusing on international security.

With the theme of peace, mutual trust, duty and pursuing common security, this year's forum will discuss security issues in the Asian-Pacific region, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as nuclear nonproliferation.

About 500 guests will attend the forum, including former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former French Prime Minister Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin, former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, and former European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The WPF was founded in 2012.