The 7th China-Singapore Legal and Judicial Roundtable is held in Beijing on Nov 28, 2023. [Photo/court.gov.cn]

The 7th China-Singapore Legal and Judicial Roundtable was held in Beijing on Nov 28. Zhang Jun, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court of China, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. Singapore's Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Zhang Jun, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court  of China, attends the opening ceremony of the 7th China-Singapore Legal and Judicial Roundtable and delivers a keynote speech on Nov 28, 2023. [Photo/court.gov.cn]

Noting that China and Singapore are friendly neighbors and major cooperative partners, Zhang said the meeting between the two heads of state in March has elevated the bilateral ties to an all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership, bearing milestone significance in the progress of the bilateral relations. A series of major consensuses reached between the two heads of state in recent years has also provided fundamental guidance for the judicial cooperation between the two countries, he said.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), where legal and judicial cooperation is an important part. Since 2017, the top courts of China and Singapore have leveraged this roundtable mechanism and conducted a series of cooperation projects in such areas as international commercial matters, intellectual property and the unification of legal applications, with a focus on the joint building of legal infrastructure for the BRI, injecting judicial impetus into the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, he said.

Looking ahead, Zhang proposed to expand cooperation with the Singaporean side by reinforcing strategic communication and mutual learning; further enhance cooperation efficiency by developing new cooperative mechanisms and measures for pragmatic cooperation; and better cater to the development strategies of respective countries with a focus on cooperating in emerging industries.

Singapore's Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon attends and addresses the opening ceremony of the 7th China-Singapore Legal and Judicial Roundtable on Nov 28, 2023. [Photo/court.gov.cn]

Menon said that judicial relations between the two countries have progressed steadily towards a higher level since the 6th China-Singapore Legal and Judicial Roundtable, especially on the management framework of international disputes in the context of the BRI. The roundtable has become an extremely valuable platform of judicial cooperation and exchanges between the courts of the two countries, he said, expressing his hope for more mutually-beneficial judicial exchanges and suggestions for the continued progress of judicial work in both countries.

The roundtable was convened under four topics: the role of judicial organs in building a transnational commercial judicial system, the building and improvement of the mechanism for ascertaining technical facts in intellectual property cases, the latest developments of the mechanism for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, and the efficient and rapid resolution of arbitration cases under judicial supervision. 

In his keynote speech, Zhang called for the joint promotion of the unification of international commercial regulations, the joint shouldering of international responsibilities and obligations in properly handling international commercial disputes, the sharing of experience and regulations on foreign-related commercial adjudication, the joint building of a diversified resolution mechanism for international commercial disputes, and joint consultation on international judicial cooperation and assistance. 

Participants of the 7th China-Singapore Legal and Judicial Roundtable pose for a group photo on Nov 28, 2023. [Photo/court.gov.cn]