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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Thursday will officially open the ninth Bali Democracy Forum (BDF), an annual high-level meeting that will discuss religion and pluralism in the democratic era.

Participants from 84 countries and five international organizations have confirmed their attendance of the two-day forum. Twenty-five of the countries will be represented by ministers or deputy ministers.

The international recognition of the importance of the BDF has further been proven by the presence of prominent figures in this year’s forum, including Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general from 1997 to 2006, Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN secretary-general from 2008 to 2012, and Ouided Bouchamaoui, a Tunisian who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

Bouchamaoui will deliver the keynote speech in the opening session and will also be a speaker in several sessions.

Current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the UN’s 71st General Assembly, Peter Thomson, are scheduled to deliver messages via video.

“The high level of participation by countries has further strengthened the forum’s position as the only dialogue forum that discusses the development of democracy in the Asia-Pacific region in a constructive way,” said Esti Andayani, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for information and public diplomacy.

“This year’s theme is very relevant to the current global situation in which there is rising religious extremism. Intolerance among people and nations will hamper democratic development in the world.”

In addition to the discussions, the forum will also invite participants to visit the Bali Bina Insani Islamic Boarding School in Tabanan regency, where the delegates can witness the practice of religious tolerance, since the school exists on a predominantly Hindu island, and the good example of an education system that promotes the values of pluralism.

The BDF is an annual event that was initiated by then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2008 to promote and foster regional and international cooperation for peace and democracy.

In a time of increasing turbulence, the BDF serves as Indonesia’s unique and positive contribution to world peace by providing the only region-wide inter-governmental forum to discuss the issue of democracy.

However, since the end of president Yudhoyono’s tenure, the BDF was downgraded from a leaders’ summit to one at the ministerial level, partly because it is seen as a legacy of Yudhoyono’s administration.

During the first forum in 2008, Indonesia established the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) as the implementing agency to follow up on the forum with many concrete programs and activities. The institute has become a new legal entity, a foundation, to make it able to cooperate with participating countries and international organizations.

On the sidelines of the BDF, Annan is slated to meet Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi on the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, Myanmar.

Annan chairs a commission set up to investigate the conflict there.

This year’s theme is very relevant to the current global situation in which there is rising religious extremism.