From September 5-8, Zhou Qiang, Chief Justice and President of the Supreme People’s Court, paid a visit to Russia from Sept. 5 to Sept. 8, during which he met with Vyacheslav Lebedev, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and Valery Zorkin, President of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

The two sides exchanged updated developments in their respective judicial systems and reforms, and reached wide-ranging consensus on all-round cooperation in judicial sectors. In his meeting with Lebedev, Zhou said that under the care of the leaders of the two nations bilateral judicial cooperation has been increasing to a new level, serving as an important part of their comprehensive bilateral strategic partnership, and contributing to serving and promoting bilateral business cooperation and private commercial exchanges.

Courts in the two nations should take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative, and undertake more specific and comprehensive exchanges, Zhou said. Zhou proposed that the supreme courts of the two countries should enhance professional exchanges concerning reform and the flow of judicial information and judges’ training, and share research on typical cases.

Efforts should also be made to develop the exchange mechanisms of local courts as well as courts in the bordering areas between the two countries, he added. Lebedev briefed Zhou about the progress Russian courts have made concerning the flow of information and judicial reform.

He said that the impressive progress China has made in judicial reform, especially in openness of information, will serve to guide Russia’s judicial sector development. In meeting with Zorkin, Zhou said that the unprecedented judicial reform China is carrying out aims at launching a fair, efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system, enabling the general public to perceive fairness and justice in each case.

Zhou also visited the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and met with Prosecutor General Yury Yakovlevich Chayka.