China to enhance legal exchanges, build cooperation platforms with BRI countries

China is enhancing legal exchanges and building cooperation platforms with countries involved in Belt and Road construction to provide legal and institutional guarantees for the initiative, Vice-Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui said.

Various countries have unique opinions on legal cooperation and relevant issues concerning international law, he said on Monday at the opening ceremony of the first session of the Belt and Road Legal Cooperation Research and Training Program.

He added that he expects participants will deepen exchanges and sharing practices to promote mutual understanding and trust through the program.

The 11-day program has 24 participants from 22 countries. The curriculum includes China's practice in international law, the country's judicial system, international economic and trade law, and legal cooperation under the BRI.

It is one of the outcomes of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in April in Beijing.

Luo said he hopes the participants will advance mutual understanding regarding laws and regulation in areas like trade and investment, and finance and taxation, as well as transportation and environmental protection.

He also called for giving full play to the role of international law as a stabilizer in international relations and jointly promoting the rule of law in international relations.

Andrei Metelitsa, director-general for Treaties and Legal Affairs in Belarus’ foreign ministry, said that the lectures on the Chinese judicial system and the cultural part of the curriculum will be helpful for a better comprehension of the Chinese values, ideas and customs that shape the concept of the rule of law in China.

He added he hopes thought-provoking and fruitful legal discussions will contribute to harmonic and structured cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative.

Sun Jisheng, vice-president of China Foreign Affairs University, said that international law provides predictable and relatively fair principles for the political and economic exchanges between countries.

Peace and the rule of law are the basis for countries involved in the BRI seeking development, she said, adding that it requires countries to abide by existing international rules and advance the development of an international rule of law to establish an effective mechanism to resolve international disputes peacefully.