The second official emblem
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) deposited its instrument of adherence to the Convention on International Civil Aviation on 15 October 1970 and accordingly became the 120th member of ICAO on 14 November 1970.
|
|
|
|
|
Second official emblem and seal |
|
ИКАО |
|
Initials in Cyrillic alphabet |
On 30 October 1970, Mr. V. Kuznetsov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, by a letter to the President of the Council, requested Council consideration of the question of introduction of the Russian language at ICAO, just as it was introduced at the United Nations. This introduction would also correspond to the role played by the Soviet Union in international civil aviation.
The Council considered this question at two meetings on 21 January and 17 February 1971 and adopted the proposal that the Assembly adopt the Russian language as a working language of ICAO.
During 18th Session of the ICAO Assembly held in Vienna, Austria, from 15 June to 7 July 1971, Russian was formally adopted as working language and shall be introduced at ICAO on the same scale as other working languages (at that time, English, French and Spanish).
This encouraged Russians specialists to work for the Organization and contributed to broadening ICAO’s cooperation with the USSR. It helped summarize and implement scientific proposals and expert opinions and recommendations. For example, within a few years, over 50 articles by Soviet scientists, engineers, pilots and top managers were published in the ICAO Bulletin magazine.
The introduction of Russian was also soon reflected in ICAO’s emblem. In October 1972, the Secretary General of ICAO agreed to introduce a revised ICAO emblem incorporating the initials of the Organization in the Cyrillic alphabet (i.e., transliteration or translation of each letter of the English acronym ICAO into the Cyrillic alphabet: ИКАО) in recognition of the introduction of Russian as a fourth language of the Organization. According to Article 43 of the Chicago Convention, the full name of the Organization in Russian is Международная организация гражданской авиации.
The Council recommended to the 21st Session of the Assembly held in Montréal, Canada from 24 September to 15 October 1974 the adoption of the new official emblem (Resolution A21-4). This resulted in ICAO becoming the only UN Specialized Agency to include more than two acronyms in its emblem.
After the USSR disintegrated in 1991, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation notified ICAO, on the behalf of Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, of the succession of Russia to the USSR in the United Nations and all its working organs. He informed ICAO that Russia accepted fully rights and obligations of the former Soviet Union in ICAO. With this succession, Russia has continued to play a key role in the strategic direction of ICAO and consequently the global civil aviation network, through the seat that it has continuously held on the ICAO Council (except for the elections during the 41th Session of the Assembly held in Montréal from 27 September to 7 October 2022).
Today, Russia is one of four ICAO Member States where Russian is spoken as an official language. The others are Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan who joined in June 1993, February 1993, and August 1992, respectively.
Russian naturally remains of crucial importance to ICAO’s ability to coordinate and cooperate with these countries, and with other countries in the region where it is commonly spoken, towards the sustainable development of civil aviation, the achievement of the goals of ICAO’s No Country Left Behind (NCLB) initiative, and, of course, benefit from the expertise of Russian-speaking aeronautical experts.
On 6 June every year, ICAO observes UN Russian Language Day. This day coincides with the birthday of the great Russian poet Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (6 June 1799). The purpose of the UN's language days is to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and French.
|
|
|
Syria - 11 May 1977 - 30th Anniversary of ICAO First correct appearance of the second official emblem in the ICAO collection |
_________________________