The year 2019 was completed with the 31st Assembly of IMO. For 2020, alongside the move towards autonomous shipping, and the safeguards required to ensure safe navigation of those vessels (and their interaction with all other, non-autonomous vessels) in all conditions, two major matters have the continuing support of IAIN. These are:

– NCSR 7/7 – Revision of the Guidelines for VTS (draft Assembly Resolution) following the excellent work of IALA, aimed at bringing the three current levels of VTS into a simplified and more applicable single layer structure;

– NCSR 7/10 – Safety Measures for non-SOLAS ships operating in Polar waters, to increase the levels of safety of vessels operating in waters where weather conditions can be extreme, and where SAR facilities are limited.

Both these measures, under debate at IMO’s Navigation, Communications and Search-and-Rescue Sub-Committee in January 2020, are effectively being fast-tracked, with the hope that they will complete passage through IMO’s Committees to final approval by the end of 2020. IAIN will continue to use its representation and best efforts to lobby to that end.