Russia fails to win reelection to IMO Council

IMO Council was elected by a secret ballot process [Photo: IMO]

The IMO Assembly has elected the members of the IMO Council for the 2024-2025 biennium —and, for the first time since 1960, Russia is not one of them.

The move was applauded by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I welcome this just decision. In the last decade, no country has done more to undermine freedom of navigation than Russia,” he said in a post on X. “I am grateful to IMO member states for taking this crucial step.”

The IMO Council is the U.N. agency‘s executive and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the organization. Between sessions of the Assembly, the IMO Council performs the functions othe Assembly, except that of making recommendations to Governments on maritime safety and pollution prevention.

The 33rd Assembly of IMO is meeting in London at IMO Headquarters in a session that started November 27 and ends December 2023. The 40-member Council was elected in a secret ballot process.

The Assembly elected the following States to be members of the Council for the 2024-2025 biennium:

Category (a): 10 States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services (listed in alphabetical order):

China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Norway, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States

Category (b): 10 States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade:

Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates

Category (c): 20 States not elected under (a) or (b) above, which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world:

Bahamas, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Türkiye.

The newly elected Council will meet, following the conclusion of the 33rd Assembly, for its 131st session (on December 7) and will elect its Chair and Vice-Chair for the next biennium.

NEW SECRETARY GENERAL CONFIRMED

Earlier in the Assembly session, on November 30, Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco of Panama was confirmed as IMO’s next Secretary-General when the Assembly unanimously approved the decision of the Council at its 129th session (C129) to appoint him to the role, succeeding Kitack Lim.

Addressing the Assembly, Dominguez Velasco said:

“You have my full commitment to build on the great work that has been done by my predecessors, taking what is already a significant and influential organization, to be an institution that will thrive in delivering its full agenda, from safety to decarbonization, from digitalization to the human element; an International Maritime Organization that not only looks towards the future, but does more in embracing change, diversity, inclusion and transparency; one that is dedicated to its people, from all the very professional staff that form the IMO Secretariat, to our seafarers worldwide and perhaps most importantly, a dedication to the younger generations, the ones we are obliged to hand over to, to hand over a planet that is a better place to live in.”

He concluded,

“I want to reiterate how much I’m looking forward to leading IMO, to continue working with all of you, an extraordinary group of people who have demonstrated time and time again that we can deliver, by listening and understanding each other, sharing our aims and concerns. I’m very lucky to start with an already great team of professionals in the Secretariat who also want what is best for the Member States and all our stakeholders.”