The 61st Annual Conference of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization ("AALCO") was held in Bali, Indonesia, from 15-20 October 2023, with representatives from 47 member States of the organization attending the conference. Huang Zhixiong, Associate Dean of the School of Law, Director of the Institute of Cyber Governance, and Professor of the Institute of International Law was invited to participate in the meeting in his capacity as Special Rapporteur of the organization's Working Group on the International Law of Cyberspace, and delivered a speech at the Working Group's meeting.

The meeting of the AALCO Working Group on International Law in Cyberspace, held on the afternoon of October 15, was the fifth meeting of the Working Group after 2016 (New Delhi, India), 2017 (Nairobi, Kenya), 2018 (Tokyo, Japan), and 2019 (Hangzhou, China) and the first since the outbreak of the New Crown. Dr. Kamalinne Pinitpuvadol, Secretary General of AALCO, delivered a speech fully recognizing the significance of this meeting for restarting the work of the Working Group following the fourth meeting in 2019. The Chairman of the Working Group, Director General of the International Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, reviewed and summarized the main work of the Working Group since its official establishment in 2016, and Huang Zhixiong reported on the drafting process, main contents, feedback from member states and next steps of the AALCO Declaration on Principles of International Law in Cyberspace, which he submitted in accordance with the relevant mandate of the Working Group. Representatives of member States, including China, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Viet Nam, made comments and expressed their positive desire to continue to support the Working Group in its relevant work.

Established in 1956 by a decision of the Bandung Conference, AALCO is the only intergovernmental international organization for the exchange and cooperation of international law in Asia and Africa. The organization established the Working Group on International Law of Cyberspace in 2015, which is currently the only official working group of the organization. Upon the recommendation of the Chinese government, Huang Zhixiong was elected as the Special Rapporteur at the first meeting of the Working Group in May 2016, and has been actively helping Asian and African countries to participate in the formulation of international rules on cyberspace.