Hongkong - Dozens of countries joined China on Friday to establish a dispute resolution team based on international mediation.

Representatives from more than 30 other countries, from Pakistan and Indonesia to Belarus and Cuba, established an international mediation organization convention on the Hong Kong International Mediation Organization after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Support from developing countries shows that Beijing's influence in the global south has increased in part by increasing geopolitical tensions.

Wang said at the ceremony that China has long advocated dealing with differences through dialogue in the spirit of mutual understanding and consensus building, while aiming to provide "Chinese wisdom" to resolve conflicts between countries.

"The establishment of an international mediation organization helps to go beyond the zero-sum mentality you lost I won," he said.

He said the Hong Kong-based corpse was designed to help promote a friendly settlement of international disputes and build more harmonious global relations.

Beijing touted the organization as the world's first intergovernmental legal organization to resolve disputes through mediation, saying it would be an important mechanism to uphold the principles of the UN Charter. It also positioned Hong Kong as an international legal and dispute resolution center in Asia.

Wang said the city's rule of law is highly developed, with the advantages of common law and Chinese legal system, and asserted that it has unique conditions for international mediation.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said the organization could start working as early as the end of this year.

Representatives from 50 other countries and about 20 organizations, including the United Nations, attended the ceremony.

Yuing Yan, a law professor at the University of China in Hong Kong, said the new organization is a supplementary mechanism for existing institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

“While the ICJ and PCA focus on adjudication and arbitration, Iomed introduces a structured, institutionalized alternative form of dispute resolution, namely mediation globally,” she said.

She said that while many details about the new agency are yet to be clarified, it could open the door to greater synergy and more flexible approaches such as mediation between formal litigation or arbitration.

Shahla Ali, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said international mediation organizations will have the ability to mediate disputes between states, states and nationals, or in international business disputes.

“Practice can provide opportunities to experiment with new methods,” she said, noting that the growing interest in global mediation is a means of resolving investor-state disputes.