The Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences has been very active in international geoscientific exchanges and cooperation. Since the 1980s, the Academy has developed exchanges and conducted hundreds of cooperation projects with research institutes, universities and geological surveys of more than 40 countries and regions. It has established long-term cooperative relations with many organizations of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Republic of Korea, the U.K. and U.S.A. as well as many other countries and regions.

In recent years, CAGS has been engaged in a number of major international cooperation projects, including China-Russia-Mongolia-Kazakhstan-Republic of Korea international cooperation projects “Atlas of Geological Maps of the Central Asia and Adjacent Areas 1:2,5M” and“3D Geological Structures and Metallogeny of the Northern-Central-Eastern Asia”; “International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalayas (INDEPTH IV)”, China-Russia bilateral projects “Deep Processing and Metallogeny of Western Pacific Continental Margin”, “Correlation Study on Tectonic Evolution and Environment Change between the Tibetan Plateau and Baikal Rift System in Cenozoic Era” and “Correlation Study on the Permian LIPs on Emeishan of China and Siberia of Russia”; CGMW Mapping Project “International Geological Map of Asia at 1:5M” etc.

CAGS has also been actively involved in key international programmes, including the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP), International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), International Lithosphere Program (ILP) etc.

CAGS currently hosts 2 UNESCO Category II Centers - “International Research Center on Karst (IRCK) at the Institute of Karst Geology and “International Center on Global-Scale Geochemistry” at the Institute of Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration. In accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Land and Resources of China (MLR) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the IUGS Permanent Secretariat is hosted at the CAGS Headquarters with the commitment from 2012 to 2020.

In recent years, CAGS sponsored and organized a number of important academic conferences in China, including “2011 International Forum on Planetary Sciences and Explorations” (2011, Beijing), “the First Joint Scientific Meeting of the Geological Society of China and the Geological Society of America” (2013, Chengdu), “International Meeting on Precambrian Evolution and Deep Exploration of the Continental Lithosphere” (2013, Beijing), “The 12^th International Conference on Salt Lake Research” (2014, Langfang), and “The 14^th Quadrennial International Association of the Genesis of Ore Deposits (IAGOD) Symposium” (2014, Kunming) etc.

At present, over 40 CAGS scientists are serving in various international academic organizations, including Scientific Board of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP), Global Geoparks Network (GGN) Bureau, International Union of Geological Sciences, International Association of the Genesis of Ore Deposits (IAGOD), Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW), International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), International Society for Salt Lake Research (ISSLR) etc.