We have always advocated for accessible, neutral, professional, and independent arbitration. This credo goes hand in hand with the fact that our rules and regulations are aligned, meet international standards, and allow the use of a wide range of languages — Alexey Kostin, Chairman, The International Commercial Arbitration Court, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

We try to take into account international trends. We try to factor in the peculiarities of individual cases. This is important. If common rules exist, Arbitration is not a template. Every case is different. We have rules for international arbitration and for domestic, corporate and sporting — Ivan Zykin, Professor of the Department of Private International Law, All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation; Deputy Chairman, International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

We understand that with the development of trade and industrial ties between Russia and the Asia Pacific states, the growing number of foreign economic contracts must assume modern and efficient mechanisms for handling disputes. Entrepreneurs from different countries turn to international commercial arbitration when considering disputes under international contracts, keeping in mind the rules of procedural confidentiality, which is especially important in the context of the sanctions policy of the collective West, and the high competence of the arbitrator – these basic conditions are achieved through a fair, adversarial, impartial examination of cases — Nikolay Volobuev, Deputy General Director, Russian Technologies State Corporation.

This year, the Beijing Winter Olympics has chosen ‘Together’ as its slogan. We generally use these slogans to solve our arbitration problems and believe that these are the main ways of organizing the work of our arbitration commission. Chinese-Russian relations develop together. We go back-to-back, we share our practices. This is a very important achievement of ours. We also look forward to closer cooperation — Chen Simin, Chairman, Guangzhou Arbitration Commission (GZAC).

The unique experience of arbitration dispute resolution and the internationally recognised reputation of the ICAC and IAC are of particular importance given the accelerated development of the Far East economy, promotion of the territory’s investment appeal, advanced development of the Free Port of Vladivostok, and expansion of international cooperation in Asia Pacific. The conditions of the new reality have also affected our region: all the difficulties associated with the division of states into friendly and unfriendly, with pandemic restrictions, bans, turbulence in international relations – all of it requires the business community to keep its hand on the pulse and react in a timely manner through formatting current commercial relations and connections, resuming negotiations with counterparties, and entering into new contracts. In the process of negotiating contractual provisions, it is important for the parties to properly define balanced terms and conditions, including provisions on force majeure, on the optimal applicable law and the choice of a forum for dispute resolution that is comfortable for the parties to the contract — Natalia Prisekina, Executive Secretary, The International Commercial Arbitration Court, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in Vladivostok.

Our arbitration, the ICAC, does not exist in a vacuum. COVID restrictions, the sanctions pressure requires an adequate response from the ICAC. The practice of remote hearings via videoconferencing and proceedings based on written materials has increased. This helps to overcome the sometimes-difficult personal involvement of all parties located in different countries when hearing a case in person. The policy of Western countries regarding anti-Russian sanctions has led to complications in accessing the arbitration centres of those countries. These complications are quite significant. They do not apply only to disputes that somehow involve these Western countries, but also to those that have nothing to do with them, disputes between other countries. What are these complications? Difficulties in getting arbitrators, difficulties with experts, difficulties with paying arbitration costs..., getting foreign legal assistance — Ivan Zykin, Professor of the Department of Private International Law, All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation; Deputy Chairman, International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

I would like to say that apart from Asia Pacific, I see – it is probably not just me – a trend of abandoning away from Western things. We have more business not only with the Far East, but also with the Middle East, the UAE. Clients from Latin America have appeared. In a balanced principle, there is already a trend, there is every reason to believe that this flow will increase — Alexey Kostin, Chairman, The International Commercial Arbitration Court, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

Russia is very big. You have to deal with different disputes in different regions. The regions have their own local peculiarities. We know what is most important for us in our practice. You know, there is an expression: when we see, we believe. But in our practice, it often happens just in the opposite direction: if we believe, we will see — Chen Simin, Chairman, Guangzhou Arbitration Commission (GZAC).

Despite its venerable age, the Maritime Arbitration Commission has kept up to date and followed the changes that reality dictates for the business community. In particular, the Maritime Arbitration Commission’s new rules are now ready for adoption, which take into account certain aspects aimed at making the proceedings as convenient as possible for the parties, a new provision on arbitration costs, which aims to make the proceedings of the Maritime Arbitration Commission even more economically attractive and at lower the cost for the parties — Elena Popova, Arbitrator, The International Commercial Arbitration Court, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation; Managing Partner, Peregrina Law Firm.

The way out of this situation is seen as including arbitration clauses in the contract with a place of arbitration other than the sanctioning countries. It means hearing disputes in Russia, e.g. at the ICAC or in the People’s Republic of China. It seems to me that the signing of the memorandum of cooperation with the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission confirms the importance of this pivot to the East — Ivan Zykin, Professor of the Department of Private International Law, All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation; Deputy Chairman, International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.