Hong Kong’s new global mediation centre can help resolve territorial or sovereignty disputes if participants are willing to come to the table, the city’s justice minister has said.

Last month, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi presided over a landmark signing ceremony for the establishment of the International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed) in the city.

Thirty-three countries signed the agreement, with most coming from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In a televised interview that aired on Saturday, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok said it was possible that the centre could be asked to mediate on territorial or sovereignty-based issues.

“The larger principle is, as long as two countries that are in conflict are willing to bring up the issue for mediation, there is nothing that cannot be discussed. Anything could be mediated,” he said.

But he noted there was an exception. The body’s convention states that it should not provide mediation services to a state if it has issued a declaration refusing to take part in such processes for certain issues.