Serbia became the latest country to accede to IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention, bringing the total number of signatories to 74, representing more than 75% of the world’s merchant fleet tonnage.
Mrs. Vesna Vercon Ivic, Consul, Serbia Embassy to the United Kingdom, met IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim at IMO Headquarters, London, on 26 July, to deposit the instrument of accession.
The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (BWM Convention), entered into force globally on 8 September 2017.
Under the treaty, ships are required to manage their ballast water, which can contain thousands of aquatic or marine microbes, plants and organisms, which are then carried across the globe.
