A group photo is taken for the online attendees of the third China-ASEAN Justice Forum, July 20, 2022. [Photo/ court.gov.cn]

The Third China-ASEAN Justice Forum concluded successfully on July 20, with the Nanning Statement unanimously adopted.

Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China, addressed the closing ceremony.

According to the Nanning Statement, the participants praised the China-ASEAN Justice Forum mechanism and expressed their willingness to use the platform in the future to further improve regional judicial cooperation and jointly enhance their judicial capabilities.

They recognized the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) as a comprehensive, modern, high-quality, and inclusive free trade agreement, and said they will accurately interpret the economic and trade rules established in RCEP in good faith, as well as promote the fostering of an international, market-oriented and law-based business environment through professional adjudication of cases according to applicable laws and regulations.

The participants will continue efforts to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of judicial protection of intellectual property rights, as well as research and exchange on online litigation, judge training and exchange of model cases, so as to bring more benefits to people of all countries in the region and make positive contributions to building closer China-ASEAN relations.

On behalf of the SPC of China, Zhou congratulated on the success of the forum. He said that on the basis of mutual understanding, respect and reference, the participants exchanged views on an equal footing and expressed their views freely. They discussed new initiatives to serve the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road, seek new paths to uphold justice, gather consensus on cooperation, deepen friendship and mutual trust, draw a common vision, and open a new chapter of judicial cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, Zhou added.

Zhou said these will promote the high-quality development of judicial work between China and ASEAN, advance China-ASEAN judicial cooperation to a new level, and promote regional integration and development with a higher level of judicial services.

The forum adopted the Nanning Statement, which laid a solid foundation for promoting the role of judicial functions and achieving greater development in terms of win-win cooperation, Zhou said, adding that the success of the forum is a new milestone in international judicial cooperation between China and ASEAN countries.

He added that the SPC of China is willing to work with the judiciaries of ASEAN countries to further deepen exchanges and cooperation and make new and greater contributions to better benefiting the people of all countries and building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Muhammad Syarifuddin, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia, said in his speech that the participants at the forum discussed important issues such as judicial services for regional trade and investment, intellectual property protection, cross-border online litigation, and judicial institutions of various countries shared their experiences, reached broad consensus and achieved fruitful results. Judicial institutions of all countries should continue to strengthen exchanges and in-depth cooperation to create healthy trade and investment relations, and make continuous efforts to promote and enhance the level of regional judicial cooperation, he added.