香港總督府
GOVERNMENT HOUSE HONG KONG
19 May 1989
Der Ihr de Nul.
По
You will remember that when the Governor was in Brussels in October you raised, after a public lecture he gave, your Joint Venture Company's arbitration case agaist the Nanhai Oil Zhuhai Special Economic Zone Development and Services Co. Ltd. (Nozesco). You later sent details to Richard Hoare whom I have now succeeded as Private Secretary.
After returning from Brussels the Governor asked the British Embassy in Peking to raise with the Chinese authorities our concern at the declaration made by the Guangdong Maritime Court. I am now able to pass on to you the result of these enquiries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs have told the British Embassy that current legal practice in China is that where there is an arbitration clause in a contract involving foreign countries, the parties concerned are to settle their contractual dispute by means of arbitration, unless otherwise stipulated by laws. Both the PRC and UK are contracting states to the 1958 New York Convention. The Convention stipulates that all the contracting states should help to enforce arbitration awards. As a contracting state to that Convention, China will fulfil its international treaty obligations.
Mr. J.P.J. De Nul Managing Director Jan De Nul N.V. P.O. Box 40 B-9300 Aalst Belgium
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