W
CONFIDENTIAL
2
5.
Under Article 6 of the Agreement, any State which is a member of the ICAO may accept the Agreement as an obligation binding upon it by notification of its acceptance to the Government of the United States.
Benefits
6.
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Most scheduled international air services operated by Hong Kong airlines involve overflying foreign countries' territories and
some of these services also require landings for non-traffic purposes. inserted later] To enable Hong Kong airlines to continue these operations without risk of interferences, it is important that the rights to do so as provided for in the Agreement are preserved after 30 June 1997.
7.
In practice, the Government of Hong Kong has secured these rights from those countries with which Hong Kong has concluded air services agreements. This is achieved by including in those agreements an article on the provision of such rights on a reciprocal basis. However, there will still be countries which Hong Kong airlines need to overfly but with which Hong Kong will not have concluded air services agreements by 30 June 1997. The continued application of the Agreement to the HKSAR after 1997 would to a great extent resolve this problem in respect of countries which are contracting States to this Agreement.