IOMed: Another China-led global organisation?
“On 30 May 2025, China, along with 33 like-minded countries, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, Serbia, Algeria, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Belarus, Papua New Guinea and Venezuela signed a convention to establish the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed), with its headquarters in Hong Kong.
According to the Chinese foreign ministry, 400 delegates from 85 countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, and around 20 international organisations, including the UN, attended the ceremony. Speaking at the occasion, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that the establishment of IOMed was an ‘innovative step in international rule of law’ with ‘great significance in the history of international relations’.”
“IOMed is the first-ever, China-led, treaty-based international body devoted exclusively to settle disputes through mediation. Presently, it focuses on the peaceful settlement of three types of disputes: ‘state-to-state’, ‘between states and foreign investors’, and ‘commercial matters between and among parties’.”
“Impartiality is another concern. Just as the US exerted influence over the institutions it built, China might do the same. What would happen if a country brought a case against China at the state level or against Chinese state-owned enterprises? Critics cite China’s rejection of the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague, which sided with the Philippines, raising doubts about IOMed’s impartiality.”
https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/iomed-another-china-led-global-organisation