Dr. Karl A. Lamers, the Chairperson of the Sub-Committee on NATO Partnerships and former President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly led a delegation to visit Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) on July 29th, 2016.

    The delegation was composed of 20 NATO PA members from 11  NATO member countries including Germany, UK, Italy, Turkey and Latvia, and escorted by Mr. Peter Rothen the Consul General of Germany in Shanghai.

    Dr. Jiang Feng, Chair of SISU’s University Council and Party Secretary met with all the delegation members and expressed his warm welcome to their visit. He also hosted the following panel discussion among the delegates and SISU’s 11 experts and scholars.

    During the discussion, scholars from both sides probed into the current international relations and the major regional issues, sharing their opinions on China’s international relations, China’s foreign policy on the Middle East, the relations between China and NATO, NATO’s relations with Russia, and the influence of NATO’s eastwards expansion.

    They also had a broad and in-depth exchange of views on a wide range of featured issues of common concern, such as the refugee crisis in Europe, the UK’s referendum, Turkey’s military coup d'état, the world’s energy problem and so on.

    All the scholars believed that peace and development remain the dominant themes of the times, and win-win cooperation and mutual benefits are always the common goals.

    The discussion deepened the mutual understanding and academic ties between NATO and SISU, enhanced SISU’s research strength as an influential Chinese think tank and promoted the subjects of international politics and area studies at SISU.

    SISU’s participants were Prof. Guo Shuyong, Dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), Prof. Wang Ning, Director of the Center for Russian Studies (CRS), Prof. Zhang Zili, Dean of the School of Russian and Eurasian Studies, Prof. Cheng Tong, Dean of the School of Asian and African Studies (SAAS), Prof. Sun Degang, Deputy Director of the Middle East Studies Institute, Assoc. Prof. Xu Yixing, Deputy Director of the European and Latin American Studies, Assoc. Prof. Gao Jian, Deputy Director of the Center for British Studies, Assoc. Prof. Xin Hua, researcher of the Center for European Union Studies, Lecturer Han Zhimin, Chair of the Turkish Language Department at SAAS, Dr. Hao Shinan, research fellow of SIRPA, Dr. Wei Jinshen, research fellow of CRS.

    Prof. Irene Ailing Zhang, Dean of SISU’s distinguished Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translations (GIIT), with her colleagues, offered the simultaneous interpretation service for the discussion.