Following the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Danube Commission convened an extraordinary session condemning Russia’s actions and decided not to recognize the authority of any Russia’s representative or his/her deputies in the Commission until the restoration of peace, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders; excluded representatives of Russia from all meetings of the Commission and its working bodies; dismissed citizens of the Russian Federation from diplomatic and administrative-technical posts in its Secretariat.
On June 15, at its regular session, the Danube Commission dissolved Preparatory Committee for the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the 1948 Convention on the Regime of Navigation on the Danube, which also included Russia, and established the Preparatory Committee for the Diplomatic Conference on the Regime of Navigation on the Danube, which consists of solely Danubian states, i.e. without russian representatives.
Thus, another step has been taken so that the Russian Federation not only receives the deserved punishment for its actions, but also to finally ensure that solely the Danubian countries are involved in the development of navigation on the Danube.
The Danube Commission has also reduced the diplomatic post of adviser to the Secretariat of the Danube Commission, which was held by a representative of Russia, and amended the Commission’s Rules of Procedure and a number of its regulations and internal provisions. From now on, no Russian citizen will be able to apply for diplomatic or administrative-technical posts in the Secretariat of this, one of the world’s oldest international organizations.
We are grateful to the Ukrainian team and our international partners, members of the Danube Commission, for their work, without them these historic decisions would not have been possible.