From May 27 to June 5, 2026, the China-International Seabed Authority Joint Training and Research Centre (the Joint Centre) held its 2026 training course in Sanya, Hainan. Leticia Carvalho, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), Sun Shuxian, Vice Minister of Natural Resources and Administrator of the State Oceanic Administration, and Bater, Executive Vice Governor of the Hainan Provincial People’s Government, attended the opening ceremony and delivered remarks. Keynote presentations were given by global deep-sea experts including Li Xiangyang, Deputy Director-General of the China Deep-sea and Ocean Affairs Administration, ISA Legal and Technical Commission members Georgy Cherkashov and Becky Hitchin, Pan Xinchun, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Oceanic Development Foundation, and Qian Peiyuan, professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The course was organized around the theme of cumulative impact assessment in the international seabed Area, combining thematic lectures, case studies, site visits, interactive practice and group work to strengthen trainees’ capabilities in international seabed environmental management and the sustainable use of resources. Nineteen international trainees from 18 developing countries, including Yemen, Egypt, the Philippines, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kiribati, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil, took part, along with more than 30 Chinese trainees, ISA Legal and Technical Commission experts and representatives from related fields in China and abroad.
As the 2026 course opened, Li Xiangyang, Deputy Director-General of the China Deep-sea and Ocean Affairs Administration, Zhang Chunlei, Director-General of the National Deep Sea Center, and other Chinese officials held in-depth exchanges with ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho and ISA secretariat officials on the future development of the Joint Centre and regional environmental management.
Li Xiangyang said the Joint Centre has operated with notable results, and that China will continue to draw on its strengths in deep-sea science and technology to provide technical support in areas such as regional environmental management plans for the international seabed Area and deep-sea big data management, play a leading regional role, push cooperation deeper, further support the ISA’s capacity-building goals and help developing countries around the world strengthen their deep-sea governance capabilities.
Secretary-General Carvalho spoke highly of China’s work, saying the Joint Centre has become a model of regional cooperation. She expressed the hope of expanding the scale of training within a sustainable development framework, continuing to raise developing countries’ capacity to participate in deep-sea activities, and further advancing work on deep-sea biodiversity research, deep-sea data management and at-sea training. She also thanked China for its support of the ISA’s regional environmental management plan work.
The Joint Centre was established under an agreement signed in October 2019 between China’s Ministry of Natural Resources (State Oceanic Administration) and the ISA, and is hosted by the National Deep Sea Center under the Ministry of Natural Resources. It has provided professional training to more than 100 trainees from over 40 countries, and continues to promote international joint research with developing countries in the deep-sea field, share global deep-sea governance experience, foster technical exchange and strengthen developing countries’ capacity to participate in international seabed affairs.
