Under the theme Collective Action for One Future, the 2024 Imperial Springs International Forum ended in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday, marking the first time it was held outside China.

Several participants of the two-day forum said the move from Guangzhou to Madrid and the theme make sense in answer to meeting global challenges.

"I think it is only natural that as our cooperation grows, as our friendship becomes stronger and stronger and our understanding better and better, we start alternating," noted Danilo Turk, former president of Slovenia and president of the World Leadership Alliance — Club de Madrid.

He said that moving the forum to Madrid is going to help more people in the West understand China.

"We really need much more human contact between people from China and people from the West and that happens in a variety of ways. Our way obviously is limited — we don't meet everybody, but we meet experts from China, we meet political and business leaders from China, and we provide an opportunity for them to hear us and also to contact our partners here in Europe or in the Americas," Turk said.

Regarding the role of the forum and the theme of this year's event, he said the world is now in a situation where there are strong tendencies of division. "Therefore, a degree of collectivity is always necessary. By collective, we mean openly collective," he said.

"China is very much on our side in that regard because China is also committed to a global perspective, not limiting views to a particular region or particular ideology," Turk added.

"The Imperial Springs International Forum has been now going on for a number of years. It has acquired a very important status internationally. As such, it is not unexpected that it would start to manifest itself in different locations," said Ismail Serageldin, former vice-president of the World Bank. "I think the forum has achieved that level where global outreach is now part of the manifestations that it can and should perhaps pursue."

Maria Fernanda Espinosa, president of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, said that exporting the forum to Spain has strong symbolism. "It means that the forum is addressing and dealing with global challenges and providing a platform for people from different regions and backgrounds to come together, to discuss the critical issues of our times."

"This forum is global, it's universal. It's diverse and brings so much wealth into the new thinking," Espinosa said.

Valdis Zatlers, former president of Latvia, said: "We all have a common future, we want it or not, we act or not; it's better to act in a cooperative way because many people talk about multilateralism without explaining what it means. I like this explanation or definition that multilateralism is institutionalized global cooperation. That means we not only talk together, but we really do something together. Before doing something together, we need to talk to each other. This is how it happens."

Ivo Josipovic, former president of Croatia, said the forum is following reality. And the reality is that humanity is collectively faced with important challenges.

"From one side, we have many wars today. We have to resolve all these conflicts in a just manner. From the other side, we have natural challenges like pollution, climate change, illness and it's very important to act together. Just common action and global action can help to resolve these types of problems. The need to act together is also visible concerning wars all around the world because just common action can improve peace and finish those wars."

The 2024 Imperial Springs International Forum gathers expert speakers to discuss how to meet global challenges. CHINA DAILY