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rominent academics, peace activists and religious leaders, as well as world leaders like Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have been invited to gather in Jakarta on Aug. 14 to 16 to exchange views on how to achieve world peace.

“Our theme for the forum is ‘The middle path for the new world civilization’,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s special envoy for Interfaith and Inter-civilizational Dialogue and Cooperation, Din Syamsuddin, said on Tuesday.

Jakarta’s seventh biennial World Peace Forum (not to be confused with the Schengen Peace Foundation’s annual World Peace Forum, the 12th of which was held in Canada in April) was jointly organized by the Office of Presidential Special Envoy for Interfaith and Inter-civilizational Dialogue and Cooperation, the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations of Indonesia and the Cheng Ho Multi-Cultural and Education Trust of Malaysia. Din said Jokowi would open it and deliver the keynote speech, which would be followed by a leaders’ panel that is to discuss the theme. Further elaboration of what constitutes the “middle path” would be conducted the next day in form of separate panels on religion, national ideologies, economics and politics.

Din said the world is currently trapped in extremist beliefs of all kinds, including ones represented by religions and national ideologies. “We have Pancasila, which we believe is the middle path,” he said. “We will have to listen what other panels will say.”

Dozens of world figures have been invited to the forum, including former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein and former prime ministers of Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Timor Leste. In addition to inviting Abbas as a Palestinian leader, Din said an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, David Shlomo Rosen, among other non-Muslim religious leaders, was also asked to attend, although it is unclear whether he would actually come.

“We have to overcome crisis together,” he said. “When we’re talking about bigger issues and limit the participants we invite, that means we’re not going to solve it completely.”

However, Din added that the Israeli-Palestine conflict would not be on the agenda of any of the discussion panels “and neither will other complicated issues”. He said the forum was not intended to produce a legally binding agreement, but only to provide an avenue to start discussions.

“Nevertheless, after three days of panel discussions, there must be a conclusion agreed to by all participants,” he said.