Convention on International Civil Aviation Message to the Senate Transmitting Protocols to the Convention.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for advice and consent of the Senate to ratification and acceptance, respectively, the following two related Protocols:

—The Protocol Relating to an Amendment to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago, 1944), done at Montreal September 30, 1977.

—The Protocol on the Authentic Quadrilingual Text of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago, 1944), with annex, done at Montreal September 30, 1977.

I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, the Report of the Department of State with regard to these Protocols.

The 1944 Chicago Convention establishes the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and a framework for the safe and reasonable conduct of international civil aviation. The 1977 Protocols are designed to permit the establishment of an authentic Russian language text of the Chicago Convention on an equal footing with the English, French and Spanish texts, which are currently the only existing authentic texts. The U.S.S.R. has been a Party to the Chicago Convention since November 14, 1970, and Russian has been an official working language at ICAO since early 1972.

Additionally, several other Eastern European States use Russian in ICAO. While these Protocols impose no new substantive obligations on the United States, they would appear to be quite important in facilitating the complete integration of the Russian language speaking States, or States which use Russian for aviation purposes, into the international civil aviation community. I therefore recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to these Protocols and advice and consent to their respective ratification and acceptance.

JIMMY CARTER

The White House,

March 22, 1979.