Russia And Antigua May Enter Maritime Agreement

by Leroy Baker, for LawandTax-News.com, New York

26 August 2005

The new Russian Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean, Mr. Igor Lebedev, met Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, this week and discussed the early conclusion of a maritime agreement between the countries.

Caribbean Net News reports that Ambassador Lebedev pledged to work diligently to develop relations between Antigua and Barbuda and the Russian Federation. He mentioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed all Russian Ambassadors to concentrate on developing economic relations with foreign countries. He outlined that there was a mechanism for political dialogue both at bilateral and CARICOM level.

The Antigua and Barbuda Merchant Shipping Act is laid down in Cap. 28 in the Laws of Antigua and Barbuda. It came into force on the 1st of January 1986. The MSA was enacted and currently amended to keep in line with international safety requirements regarding safer ships and cleaner oceans.

The International Register of Ships is operated by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda on the legal basis of the MSA through its Department of Marine Services and Merchant Shipping (ADOMS). It is the policy of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda to give full and complete effect to all conventions and to fully implement all requirements as they are applicable to Antigua and Barbuda.

An agreement with Russia would enhance the capacity of the Antigua and Barbuda Shipping Register to attract vessels from the Russian Federation, or major maritime nations. Prime Minister Spencer emphasized that Antigua and Barbuda was looking to expand its shipping register and that formalizing the arrangement with the Russian Federation was a step in that direction.

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