Event Format: Panel discussion followed by Networking Event
Event Description: Trade and investment between the Gulf and Asia are growing fast, across South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, and with them the need for effective dispute resolution. India is a leading example, with long-standing commercial ties to the Gulf and a dense network of Indian businesses in the UAE. But the same dynamics are visible in the flows of capital, energy, construction and trade between the Gulf and China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the wider region.
This panel will explore what the UAE offers as an arbitration seat for Asian parties: its legal and institutional framework, including the onshore regime and the DIFC and ADGM systems, and its position as a neutral venue between East and West. Panellists will discuss why parties from India and across Asia are choosing Dubai, DIFC and Abu Dhabi as their seat, and the practical factors behind that choice: geographic and time-zone proximity, cost, access to experienced counsel and arbitrators, and a judiciary that supports arbitration. The India-Gulf corridor will serve as a practical reference point for how these dynamics play out, alongside perspectives from other Asian jurisdictions.
The discussion will then turn to enforcement, from award to recovery, wherever the assets sit: in the UAE, India or elsewhere in Asia. Panellists will examine how awards seated in the UAE are enforced in India and other Asian jurisdictions under the New York Convention, and how awards from Asian seats are enforced in the UAE. They will also look at how the interplay between onshore and free-zone courts affects enforcement strategy, and how to choose the seat and enforcement route with recovery in mind from the outset.