Russia Is Expelled From The ICAO’s Governing Council

On Oct 1st at the 41st Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held in Montreal, Canada, Moscow lost its seat in the ICAO’s governing council after an assembly voted to condemn the Putin regime’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereign airspace.

 There are 36 seats in the ICAO’s governing council and Russia was listed as one of the states of chief importance in air transport over the past 3 years. In the re-election, Moscow failed to win 86 votes from the 193 member states and lost its seat in the agency’s governing council. Since the Kremlin waged aggressive war against Ukraine on Feb 24th, there has been growing calls for the expulsion of Moscow from the ICAO’s governing council.

 Poppy Khoza, assembly president and South Africa’s director general of civil aviation, refused Russian representatives’ unreasonable demand for another vote but initiated a procedural review of the voting results. Yuliya Kovaliv, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, noted Moscow’s violation of Kyiv’s airspace and bombing of airports constituted significant breaches of the security principles for global aviation established in the Chicago Convention in 1944. The Putin administration should be held accountable and member states of ICAO should denounce such practice as well.