ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu (second from right) is welcomed to the 35th Session of the Interstate Council on Aviation and Airspace Use, in Baku, Azerbaijan, by the President of the Interstate Council and Chairperson of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), Dr. Tatiana Anodina (centre).
MONTRÉAL, 28 OCTOBER 2015 – The President of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, took advantage of his recent address to the 35th Session of the Interstate Council on Aviation and Airspace Use, in Baku, Azerbaijan, to stress the need for greater cooperation between States and regional organizations and a renewed commitment to air transport capacity building.
Highlighting the value of ICAO’s recently-revised Global Plans for Aviation Safety and Air Navigation operations and modernization, as well as the fact that the air transport sector is poised to double in size by 2030, President Aliu stressed that global aviation’s “first challenge will be to manage this expansion in flight and passenger volumes while ensuring flight safety, sustaining or improving upon current performance levels relating to every ICAO area of strategic priority.”
President Aliu addressed the IAC meeting at the invitation of the President of the Interstate Council, Chairperson of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), Dr. Tatiana Anodina. He also used the opportunity to highlight to his Eastern European audience of experts and senior civil aviation officials which comprises experts from the sub region of the Interstate Council Member States, that the ICAO World Aviation Forum, to be held this 23-25 November, would be a critical opportunity for world States, as well as for regional organizations, to understand and begin taking advantage of a new era in civil aviation development in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking at the opening of the Session, President Aliu stressed that “the Interstate Aviation Council and IAC have managed over the past 25 years to preserve and enhance the spirit of cooperation between States, while achieving impressive results in the implementation of the fundamental principles of regional cooperation – one of ICAO’s most important priorities.”
“ICAO is presently in the midst of a No Country Left Behind programme to help ensure that all States have the fundamental capacities in place to effectively implement ICAO’s Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs), and thereby reap the very positive economic impacts which this growth can entail,” he commented. “I am very encouraged therefore that the Interstate Aviation Committee will be joining us at ICAO’s upcoming World Aviation Forum, and playing an important part in advancing the benefits of the No Country Left Behind initiative to its Member States.”
“The IAC is very pleased to be supporting this important ICAO initiative,” stressed Dr. Anodina. “Our Region’s States will be benefitting directly from a renewed focus on civil aviation development and investment, and ICAO is taking important steps today to help them realize those objectives tomorrow.”
In conclusion, President Aliu said that “having studied the Interstate Council agenda for this session I was heartened to see that it remains fully consistent with ICAO’s Strategic Objectives and that we therefore share a very solid foundation from which to pursue our intensified cooperation in the months and years ahead.”
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