Draft Convention on International Organization for Marine Aids to Navigation includes all proposals of Russia
The Diplomatic Conference on the Convention on the International Organization for Marine Aids to Navigation was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 25-28 February 2020. Yury Mikhoov, General Director of Federal State Unitary Hydrographic Department, told IAA PortNews about the Conference results.
Among the Conference participants was the delegation of the Russian Federation including representatives of the Defence Ministry, the Transport Ministry and State Corporation “Rosatom”. Andrey Oleynikov, Deputy General Director of Hydrographic Department was also among the delegation members.
All the proposals of the RF delegation related to the functioning of the new organization were included in the Convention. Among them was the proposal to include the Russian language into the list of official languages of the newly established organization. Upon completion of the Diplomatic Conference, the member states signed the Final Act entitling the IALA member states sign and ratify the Convention.
“So, - said Yury Mikhov, - the work conducted by the Russian delegation will let Russian organizations involved in ensuring safe navigation in waters under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation use the global experience in servicing aids to navigation and develop the national system of navigational aids on a technically sophisticated level complying with the global standards”.
Yury Mikhov reminded that Rosatom has been actively involved in IALA activities from October 2019.
The International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), in its Resolution of 27 May 2014 in A Coruña, Spain, believing that international intergovernmental organization status would best facilitate IALA’s aims into the future, determined that IALA should strive to achieve such status as soon as possible by supporting the development of an international convention. Since then, three Preparatory Diplomatic Conferences have been held, where the participants prepared the text of a draft Convention on the International Organization for Marine Aids to Navigation.
IALA (International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities) is a non profit, international technical association. Established in 1957, it gathers together marine aids to navigation authorities, manufacturers, consultants, and, scientific and training institutes from all parts of the world and offers them the opportunity to exchange and compare their experiences and achievements. USSR joined IALA on 1 January 1958. IALA is headquartered in St Germain en Laye, France.
IALA encourages its members to work together in a common effort to harmonise aids to navigation worldwide and to ensure that the movements of vessels are safe, expeditious and cost effective while protecting the environment.