From Montreal With Love

In a move that speaks to the ongoing deterioration of Russia’s global standing, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)—a United Nations agency established to study, regulate, and standardize world aeronautics—has resolved to expel Russia from its governing body.

The decision, unprecedented in ICAO’s 78-years, was made during the organization’s 2022 General Assembly in Montreal, Canada, and compelled primarily by Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine and its collateral humanitarian, social, and economic crises.

ICAO comprises 193 member states, of which 36 serve on the agency’s ruling council. Russia’s retaining its place on subject council was contingent upon 86 favorable votes, of which only eighty were cast.

Notwithstanding the Moscow delegation’s insistence upon a second vote, the initial decision was deemed irrevocable, owing to the participating nations’ collective disapprobation of Russia’s belligerence in Ukraine, the closure of Russian airspace to airlines from 36 countries, and Russia’s illegal confiscation of hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft.

The media bluster surrounding the 30 September vote belies the long-standing and demonstrable fact that the ICAO is an anodyne, apolitical body, unaccustomed to crises. It follows, therefore, that the business of ousting Russia engendered tension among the delegates even before they convened in Montreal. Prior to the General Assembly, Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra made public his opinion that Russia be held accountable for his actions, and announced that Canada would not support Russia’s nomination to the council.

In a speech to the ICAO assembly, European Union Transport Commissioner Adina-Ioana Valean contended that Russia’s violations of the 1944 Chicago Convention precluded the nation’s appointment to a council tasked with upholding the statutes thereof. “This is not about Politics,” Ms. Valean opined. “This is about the foundations of this organization.”

The vote by which Russia was summarily excluded from the global aviation community was carefully and protractedly engineered. In the early summer of 2022, some four-months after Russian forces occupied Ukrainian territories, senior E.U. aviation officials met with representatives of non-E.U. nations for purpose of soliciting support for Russia’s expulsion from the ICAO. Those efforts ensured the Montreal General Convention would see Russia abrogated from global aeronautical relevance, and not so tacitly condemned for Moscow’s bellicism.

The departure of Putin’s government from ICAO will see Russia lose the opportunity to collaborate in the development and setting of precedents and regulations fundamental to future aerospace endeavors the likes of Advanced Air Mobility, supersonic civilian air-transportation, and electric/hybrid-electric aero propulsion systems.

Furthermore, Russia’s exemption from adherence to international aviation standards and regulations will certainly undermine the international community’s trust in the airworthiness and safety of Russian aircraft and air-carriers.

In time, flights originating in Russia are apt to be prohibited from operating in the airspace of ICAO member states—all 193 of them—thereby exacerbating Russia’s already crippling isolation.

FMI: www.icao.int