MONTRÉAL, 3 May 2013 – Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Quebec Minister of International Relations, La Francophonie and External Trade Jean-François Lisée, and Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum met with ICAO Council President Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez and ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin at the UN aviation agency’s Montreal Headquarters today.
In light of a recent offer by the State of Qatar to relocate ICAO’s Permanent Seat from Montreal to Doha, and following on a press conference on the topic earlier that morning, Baird, Lisée and Applebaum confirmed their joint determination to keep ICAO’s Permanent Seat located in Montreal, which they referred to as “ICAO’s natural home”.
Kobeh and Benjamin meanwhile thanked the respective governments for their continued recognition and support for ICAO’s important international role and positive contributions to the Montreal economy.
On 11 April Qatar submitted an official offer to ICAO proposing that the Permanent Seat of the UN civil aviation organization be relocated to Doha. Under ICAO policies and procedures, the Qatar offer must now be submitted as a Working Paper to ICAO’s triennial Assembly this fall, where it will be voted on by all of the organization’s 191 Member States.
