On May 12-13, 2019, Dr. Yang Zewei of Wuhan University, was invited by the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific and the Belt and Road Committee to attend the “The Belt and Road through Central Asia: Law and Economic Development” seminar in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At the seminar, Professor Yang gave a speech entitled "The Belt and Road Initiative and Development of the Contemporary International Law".

The conference was hosted by the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific and the Belt and Road Committee and co-organized by Kazakhstan’s “Unicase Law Firm”. More than 20 experts and scholars from the Chinese Law Society, Wuhan University, Fudan University, University of International Business and Economics, as well as Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Indonesia and India attended the conference. The conference focused on issues related to the “Belt and Road” and discussed issues such as infrastructure construction, Chinese investment, international legal cooperation and dispute resolution. In his speech at the conference, Professor Yang mainly explained the interactive relationship between the “Belt and Road Initiative” and the development of contemporary international law, and pointed out that the “Belt and Road Initiative” as a new form of international cooperation and a new platform for global governance in contemporary international law will have a multifaceted impact on the development of contemporary international law; the contemporary international law will play a guaranteeing role for the Belt and Road Initiative in preventing and resolving various risks and all kinds of disputes in the process of building the “Belt and Road”. The “Belt and Road Initiative” is in line with the new trend of international cooperation and development of the 21st century, indicating a new round of the process of reform of the new international political order. Professor Yang’s speech aroused great interest from the participants and launched a more heated discussion. During the meeting, Professor Yang also introduced the basic situation of the Institute of International Law of Wuhan University and the latest progress of the research on the “Belt and Road” project hosted by some other professors.（It was reported by Xiaoyu Ai）