The first high-level meeting between the Supreme Judicial Council and the Supreme Court of the People's Republic of China was held Today, co-chaired by Dr. Hassan bin Lahdan Al-Mohannadi, President of the Supreme Judicial Council, President of the Court of Cassation, and his counterpart, Judge Zhou Qiang, via "remote" video communication technology.

The heads of the diplomatic missions of the two countries in Doha and Beijing, senior judges and administrative leaders from both sides participated in the meeting.

The meeting discussed a number of issues, including the theoretical and practical foundations that can be built upon in finding bilateral judicial cooperation that serves the jurisdictions of the two friendly countries, and at the same time contributes to strengthening multilateral international judicial cooperation in light of the two countries' efforts to play an important role in consolidating the values of prompt justice.

The meeting discussed issues of cooperation in many fields, foremost of which is the development of commercial justice practices and the regulation of commercial transactions through traditional dispute resolution mechanisms and alternative solutions to resolve these disputes, making them tools supportive of the growing bilateral trade between the two friendly countries and other issues of common interest.

The discussions also dealt with ways and means of exchanging experiences and lessons learned from smart applications and technology supporting litigation mechanisms, especially those emerging in the arena of cross-border commercial disputes and cybercrime.

The discussions also included a presentation on the performance of the Chinese judiciary during the Corona pandemic (Covid-19) and the smart technical alternatives that were used to maintain the sustainability of the litigation mechanism and not to lag behind the compelling circumstance posed by the pandemic.

The Supreme Judicial Council also reviewed an overview of its structural construction and its ambitious plan to make amendments and development that speeds up the procedural cycle of litigation and guides the draining of resources and efforts, and in particular provides support for the country's economy and its foreign and internal trade, which came on top of the project to create a specialized court in trade and investment disputes.

In this regard, His Excellency Judge Khalid Ali Al Obeidli, President of the Trade and Investment Court, reviewed the jurisdiction of the court, the timetable for launching its work, and the new added values that he is working to integrate into litigation mechanisms, whether in the procedural or technical aspects, in addition to the ambitions of this court to benefit from relevant global experiences. , especially those related to the experience of the Chinese commercial judiciary, whose reputation and effects on international law practices exceeded to the level that the rulings of the Chinese judiciary in this field have become among the most important principles of international commercial justice that simulate the rapid development of trade patterns and cross-border trade exchange activities.

Judge Tao Kaiyuan, Vice-President of the Supreme Court and Head of the Commercial Department, expressed full readiness to provide all support and share experiences with her counterparts in the State of Qatar, translating it to the sincerity of intentions that unite the two parties.

It is noteworthy that HE Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the People's Republic of China, Mohammed Al-Dehaimi, and HE Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Doha, Zhou Jian, participated in the aforementioned meeting.

In their intervention, the two ambassadors expressed the full diplomatic channels’ support for this trend, the first of its kind between the courts of the two countries, since the establishment of bilateral relations 33 years ago, which is consistent with the remarkable activity witnessed by these relations, which was translated by two visits of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of the country. The People's Republic of China in 2014 and 2019, as well as the continuation of direct dialogue and practical cooperation between the two countries at all levels, which contributed to making China the largest trading partner of the State of Qatar last year.

The two ambassadors stressed that judicial cooperation and mutual recognition of judgments and bilateral judicial delegations between the courts of the two countries will add a new dimension to the pledges of the leaderships of the two friendly countries to expand the fields and horizons of this cooperation.

After the meeting, the two sides pledged to proceed quickly to put the bilateral judicial cooperation plans into implementation and to benefit from the support provided by the diplomatic channels and electronic means of communication in bringing the distance between the two countries closer and supporting the plans of dialogue and cooperation.