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The International Maritime Organization Council reaffirmed the importance of protecting freedom of navigation, upholding international law, and ensuring seafarer safety as it condemned the recent attacks on civilian vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz
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The IMO Council adopted a resolution stating that transit passage through international straits must not be impeded or suspended, and that it should remain toll-free
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It emphasized that coastal states must regulate shipping traffic in accordance with IMO rules under the SOLAS Convention
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The Council condemned attacks on civilian commercial ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz and called for de-escalation in the Middle East conflict
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It urged efforts to restore safe, non-discriminatory, and toll-free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz as US President Donald Trump announced a 20% fee
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The council also encouraged support for the Cooperative Mechanism that helps manage the Straits of Malacca and Singapore
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) reaffirmed the importance of protecting freedom of navigation, upholding international law, and ensuring seafarer safety as it condemned the recent attacks on civilian vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The IMO council, in a statement after concluding its 137th session held July 6-10, said it adopted a resolution reaffirming that navigational rights and freedoms must be preserved in accordance with international law.
The resolution stressed that the right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation “should not be threatened, impeded, denied, hampered, impaired or suspended.”
The statement comes as the United States-Iran peace deal collapsed, and an exchange of attacks across Middle East targets have resumed. Iran on July 13 also fired at two tankers owned by the United Arab Emirates, killing at least one seafarer.
READ: WSC, IMO stress freedom of navigation in Hormuz with US-Iran peace deal
The IMO council also reiterated that any measures adopted by coastal states to regulate vessel traffic in critical shipping lanes must comply with International Maritime Organization regulations under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).
Addressing the security situation in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the IMO Council condemned attacks on civilian commercial ships and called for a de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
The council emphasized that any arrangement among littoral states in the region should guarantee the non-discriminatory and unimpeded right of transit passage for all ships through the internationally recognized traffic separation scheme adopted by the IMO in 1968.
Toll-free
It also underscored that passage through the Strait of Hormuz should remain free from tolls and charges in accordance with international law and the IMO Convention.
US President Donald Trump, in a post on Truth Social on July 13, said the US is reinstating a naval blockade of Iranian ports, which is intended to prevent “Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving” the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, all other countries “will have fair and open use” of the shipping route, but “as a matter of fairness”, the US will also impose a 20% charge on all cargo carried by ships through the strait.
The council requested the IMO secretary-general to explore measures that would promote safe maritime traffic and work with littoral states, other member states and the shipping industry to ensure a coordinated and sustainable return to unhindered navigation through the Strait.
Cooperative mechanism for Malacca, Singapore Straits
Meanwhile, the IMO Council noted information shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore on their joint management of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore through a “Cooperative Mechanism” that brings together governments and industry to share responsibility for maintaining the strategic waterway.
To support the initiative, the council invited interested member states and other stakeholders to make financial or in-kind contributions to the Aids to Navigation Fund and the IMO Straits of Malacca and Singapore Trust Fund, which support the initiative.
