On May 27, the 2026 training course of the China-International Seabed Authority Joint Training and Research Centre opened in Sanya, Hainan. Sun Shuxian, Vice Minister of Natural Resources and Administrator of the State Oceanic Administration, Bater, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and Executive Vice Governor of Hainan Province, and Leticia Carvalho, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, attended the opening ceremony and delivered remarks.
Sun Shuxian said China stands ready to actively support the International Seabed Authority in playing a positive role in global ocean governance, will as always support and constructively participate in the negotiation of the regulations on the exploitation of mineral resources in the international seabed Area, will always stand with developing countries, and will continue to use platforms such as the China-ISA Joint Training and Research Centre and programs such as the Chinese Government Marine Scholarship to support marine capacity building in developing countries to the best of its ability.
Nineteen international trainees from countries including Yemen, Egypt, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kiribati, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil, more than 30 Chinese trainees, experts of the ISA Legal and Technical Commission, and representatives from related fields in China and abroad are taking part in the training.
The 10-day course is organized around seven themes: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and related agreements; an overview of deep-sea resources and the environment; the central role of data in scientific research and impact assessment; the evolution of impact assessment methods from single impacts to cumulative impacts; cumulative impact assessment modelling methods and their application in global regulation; marine environmental protection; and developments in deep-sea science and technology, with the aim of strengthening trainees’ overall capabilities.
The Centre was jointly established by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the International Seabed Authority in 2019.
