MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. The Russian government submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, a draft law denouncing the 1964 Convention for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

The document was posted in the electronic database of the State Duma. Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries Ilya Shestakov said last May that Russia could withdraw from ICES if its full membership is not restored. The Council’s working area is the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. According to the explanatory note, twenty countries are ICES members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Island, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The explanatory note says that ICES is an international research body providing recommendations on an annual basis in respect of exploitation of aquatic resources "for the purpose of providing for their sustainable use and preservation, and for protection of vulnerable ecosystems."

Provisions of the Convention does not provide for the possibility of suspending any contracting party from work in the Council and putting issues for voting that are beyond powers of the organization, the government stressed.

On March 30, 2022, the Council made the decision to suspend participation of the Russian Federation in ICES activities "in defiance of Convention provisions," the explanatory note reads. "Despite repeated addresses of the Russian side, the unlawful decision has not been canceled up to now," the document indicates.