TNAG-0511-FCO40-576-Visits-of-ships-from-Soviet-Union-to-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 64

TRANSLATION OF SPEAKING NOTE HANDED TO HEAD OF CHANCERY

· BY MR VASEV, DEPUTY HEAD OF SECOND EUROPEAN DEPARTMENT

IN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MOSCOW, ON 7 AUGUST 1974

I have been instructed to inform you that in the immediate future the Government of the USSR, in the interests of the further development of international shipping and of trade relations between states, intends to put forward for the consideration of the 33rd session of IMCO a proposal for the formulation and subsequent adoption of an international convention on the regime of marine vessels in foreign ports.

In taking this initiative, the Soviet side bears in mind that the carrying out of international navigation is inseparably linked with calls at and periods of stay in foreign ports by maritime vessels. The conditions of such periods of. stay have a most substantial effect on the general development of international shipping.

By virtue of one of the basic principles of international law the principle of respect for the sovereignty of a state, a vessel staying in a foreign port is subject to the laws and regulations of the coastal state, to its border, customs and other appropriate authorities.

At the same time, the practice of internationalccontact by states in the field of shipping, has evolved a norm, whereby the coastal state as a general rule does not intervene in the affairs of the foreign vessel and does not implement its jurisdiction in relation to it, if the activities carried out by the vessel or by persons oh board do not infringe upon the interests of that state, or if the captain or the consul of the country whose flag is flown on the given vessel does not request such intervention.

So far as foreign vessels in territorial waters àre concerned, this position is secured in the Geneva Convention concerning territorial water and the adjacent zone of the 29th of February 1968 (Articles 19, 20): so far as foreign vessels in inner waters are concerned, including ports, this is covered at the present time by common law and local legislation, and also the provisions of bilateral agreements. At the same time the absence of precise norms, secured in an international convention and regulating a regime for the periods of stay of marine vessels in foreign ports, frequently leads to unwarrantable complications in the relations between the captain of a vessel and the authorities of the place concerned.

/The above-mentioned