The conference “The Rise of Asia” was held in Paris. Within the framework of this conference, experts took part in two sessions dedicated to the topic of BRICS expansion.

The two Sessions have been chaired by Dragana Mitrovic (Founder and Director of the Institute for Asian Studies, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia) and by Marco Ricceri, (the Secretary general of the Eurispes reserach Institute and co-ordinator of the Italian BRICS Lab.

In the introduction, they underlined the importance of the expansion of BRICS coordination to five new states as full title members, which took place on 1 January 2024, and the new perspectives that this event opens for both the external and internal cooperation of the grouping and for the reform of the global order.

During the event, the speakers discussed various issues related to the development and expansion of BRICS. Thus, Marta Bono from the University of Palermo (Italy) presented a report “The International Commercial Arbitration in BRICS: towards a common framework for dispute resolution”.

During her presentation, she noted that investors and trading partners working within the BRICS framework need a fair, flexible and reliable dispute resolution mechanism.

“So far, the BRICS Legal Forum has played a key role in advocating for the establishment of the BRICS Centres of Dispute Resolution and for the creating a common legal framework under which they can operate. Currently, five arbitration centres are located in each of the BRICS countries. But the implementation of the common economic activities will inevitably call for a certain degree of harmonization among BRICS at two main levels: among the BRICS arbitration laws and among the BRICS centres themselves. That is an open issue, and it should be interesting to see what kind of solutions the enlarged group will be able to find and apply”.

The conference Rise of Asia lasted 3 days. It encouraged the participation of scholars from a wide range of scientific disciplines (area studies, cultural studies, ecology, economics, geography, history, humanities, languages, management, political and social sciences) and practitioners from diverse professional fields (business, civil society, education, enterprise, government, management, parliament, public policy, social and solidarity movements) as well as artists and writers, based in diverse geographical areas.

Photo: The Institute for Political, Social and Economic studies EURISPES