RBSA is very pleased that Belgium has been re-elected as a member of the IMO Council. Belgium is the world’s 17th largest register of shipping and has a tonnage controlled fleet of 23,5 billion TDW or 1.23% of the world total in 2017. Therefore it is important for us to be represented at the Organization’s highest level of IMO.

The IMO has 172 Member States, 40 of which serve in the IMO Council, which could be considered as the governing board of the Organization. This time, 46 countries had presented their candidature for the 40 Council seats, and thus there has been a contested election in two out of three of the election categories. This was also the case for category C in which Belgium was running.

In category A, in which there was no contested election, the following countries were elected to the Council: China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and the United States.

Category B has not usually had contested elections. However, Australia and the United Arab Emirates challenged this group making it 12 candidates for 10 seats. Both countries succeeded in getting a seat on the Council along with Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Argentina and Bangladesh lost their Council seats.

In group C, the following countries won a seat along with Belgium: the Bahamas, Denmark, Chile, Cyprus, Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. The challengers Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia did not gain seats in the Council.