UN aviation and maritime agencies pledge to collaborate to boost safety, tackle challenges
SINGAPORE – The United Nations' aviation and maritime agencies have pledged to collaborate with each other to tackle common challenges at a global conference held on July 14 in Singapore.
At a dialogue session held at Global Aviation and Maritime Symposium, the leaders of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had agreed to tap each other's expertise to enhance aviation and maritime safety.
The session, which involved Mr Juan Carlos Salazar, the Secretary-General of ICAO, and his IMO counterpart Mr Arsenio Dominguez, touched on topics such as the impact of geopolitical tensions, dangers faced at sea and in the air, the role of multilateralism, and gaining consensus from member states.
Mr Salazar said both sectors faced common challenges, including dealing with political instability in the world , security and safety of maritime and aviation transport systems, as well as dealing with the environmental impact caused by both sectors.
Noting that the dialogue was a good opportunity to showcase the 'deep connections' between the maritime and aviation sectors, Mr Salazar said the cross-pollination of ideas and exchange of experiences – regarding what worked for one organisation – would be beneficial, given that they face common challenges.
The dialogue was moderated by The Straits Times' associate editor Karamjit Kaur. It was the first public sharing session that featured the leaders of both organisations.
On political instability, Mr Salazar said during a press conference with Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow on the same day that the rearrangement of transit through conflict zones and management of crises are potential areas for collaboration between ICAO and IMO.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun
Singapore Man charged over distributing nearly 3 tonnes of vapes in one day in Bishan, Ubi Avenue 3
Singapore Singapore boosts support for Timor-Leste as it prepares to join Asean
Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world
Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate
Singapore High Court dismisses appeal of drink driver who killed one after treating Tampines road like racetrack
Singapore 18 years' jail for woman who hacked adoptive father to death after tussle over Sengkang flat
Singapore Jail, caning for man who had 285 child porn videos, including those that show infants
Mr Dominguez agreed , adding that some common challenges both organisations face are the rerouting of travel paths, and spiking or interference of safety equipment onboard vessels and aircraft.
The dialogue session touched on topics such as the impact of geopolitical tensions, dangers faced at sea and in the air, the role of multilateralism, and gaining consensus from member states.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
During the dialogue, Mr Salazar and Mr Dominguez had acknowledged the impact of the tense geopolitical backdrop on both sectors.
Adding that moments of crises typically encourages members of the international community to come together, Mr Salazar said he is optimistic about the work both ICAO and IMO are doing together.
Citing the Red Sea attacks as one of the biggest challenges the maritime sector is facing now, Mr Dominguez said that the industry is resilient enough to find alternative routes in the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
Learning from these situations has made IMO more active in multilateralism as countries will work together to address common concerns and put themselves forward to be part of the solution, he added.
Mr Dominguez said: 'So even though the challenges are there, it reiterates the importance of multilateralism in the UN as a whole.'
Noting that both sectors are working towards their target of net-zero emissions, Mr Salazar said ICAO has set out specific decarbonisation steps known as a basket of measures.
He added that ICAO is also looking at IMO's strategy on greenhouse gases, which has set out a clear end date by which fossil fuels will stop being used. He called it a 'very innovative scheme' that ICAO hopes to learn more from.
'I believe there are many opportunities to continue to collaborate, and we look forward to continuing to enhance the dialogue. There is very good chemistry between the two organisations,' added Mr Salazar.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
14 hours ago
- Straits Times
Australia looks to scrap surcharges on most card payments
Find out what's new on ST website and app. In a consultation paper on the proposals, RBA said surcharges and fees were no longer in the public interest and invited feedback from interested parties by Aug 26. SYDNEY - Australia's central bank on July 15 proposed to scrap surcharges on most debit and credit card payments for consumers while lowering interchange fees paid by businesses, steps it estimated would save the two groups around A$2.4 billion (S$2 billion) a year. In a consultation paper on the proposals, the Reserve Bank of Australia said surcharges and fees were no longer in the public interest and invited feedback from interested parties by Aug 26. The RBA judged that surcharges on debit and credit cards, including Mastercard and Visa, no longer achieved the intended purpose of steering consumers to make more efficient payment choices. The RBA said avoiding surcharges had become harder as cash usage declined and there were challenges with enforcing the current rules. The central bank's most recent triennial consumer payments survey found that the share of consumer payments made in cash had fallen from around 70 per cent by number in 2007 to 13 per cent in 2022. 'Removing surcharging would make card payments simpler, more transparent and help to increase competition in the card payments system,' the RBA said. Capping and lowering interchange fees, which merchants' banks pay to cardholders' banks, would benefit around 90 per cent of Australian businesses, the RBA said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw acts against 4 law firms, 1 lawyer over seized properties Asia China's economy grows 5.3% in first half of 2025, momentum slowing amid trade tensions Business 'Some cannot source outside China': S'pore firms' challenges and support needed amid US tariffs Multimedia From local to global: What made top news in Singapore over the last 180 years? Singapore Turning tragedy into advocacy: Woman finds new purpose after paralysis Opinion Sumiko at 61: Everything goes south when you age, changing your face from a triangle to a rectangle Sport Poor water quality off Sentosa delays World Aquatics C'ship open water swimming event by a day Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun Cutting interchange caps would benefit small businesses the most, while putting caps on foreign interchange fees would help to lower fees for all businesses accepting international cards. Mr Alan Machet, group country manager for Visa Oceania, welcomed action on consumer surcharges but argued interchange fees were needed to fund investment in innovation and fraud protection. The RBA also proposed to require card networks to publish the interchange fees they charge, making it easier for businesses to shop around for a better deal. The central bank said it intends to publish its conclusions and an implementation timeline for any regulatory steps by the end of the year. Mastercard did not respond immediately to a request for comment. American Express has a separate agreement with the RBA and is not subject to interchange rules. REUTERS
Straits Times
15 hours ago
- Straits Times
Air India crash: SIA has completed checks on its Boeing 787 fuel switches as a precaution
Find out what's new on ST website and app. SINGAPORE - National carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its budget arm Scoot have completed checks on the fuel switches on their Boeing 787 aircraft as a precautionary measure, in the wake of the Air India crash in June that killed 260 people. This comes a few days after a preliminary investigation report on the crash of Flight AI171 said that the fuel control switches of the B787-8 Dreamliner were moved to the 'cut-off' position within three seconds of take-off, causing both engines to shut down. SIA has 26 B787 jets in its fleet, while Scoot has 23. 'The safety of our customers and staff is our top priority,' an SIA Group spokeswoman told The Straits Times on July 15. The report by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) did not say how or why the fuel switches were moved. But it flagged a 2018 advisory from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that recommended, but did not mandate, the inspection of the locking feature of the fuel switches of several Boeing models to ensure they could not be moved accidentally. The locking mechanism requires flight crew to lift the fuel switch before they can be moved to a different position. Since the release of the AAIB report on July 11, other airlines around the world have also begun conduct inspections on these switches. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw acts against 4 law firms, 1 lawyer over seized properties Asia China's economy grows 5.3% in first half of 2025, momentum slowing amid trade tensions Business 'Some cannot source outside China': S'pore firms' challenges and support needed amid US tariffs Multimedia From local to global: What made top news in Singapore over the last 180 years? Singapore Turning tragedy into advocacy: Woman finds new purpose after paralysis Opinion Sumiko at 61: Everything goes south when you age, changing your face from a triangle to a rectangle Sport World Aquatics C'ship women's 10km open water swimming event delayed by a day due to water quality Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun This was despite Boeing and the FAA privately issuing notifications to airlines and regulators that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes were safe and checks were not required, according to a Reuters report. Over the July 12 weekend, Air India Group started inspecting the locking mechanism on the fuel switches of its Boeing 787 and 737 fleets. No problems have been found yet. India's civil aviation authority on July 14 also ordered airlines that operate specific Boeing aircraft to carry out inspections on the fuel switch locking feature by July 21, said local media. South Korea's transport ministry was said to be preparing to order all of its airlines to do the same. Etihad Airways has ordered an inspection of the fuel switch locking mechanism on their Boeing jets too. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier also directed its crew to 'exercise caution' while operating the fuel switches on Boeing 787 aircraft.
Straits Times
15 hours ago
- Straits Times
Why Trump is attacking Biden over autopen signatures
Autopens have been use in the White House for decades, opening up the possibility that anyone with access to the device could exercise presidential power. For decades, presidents have used autopens to keep up with the relentless stream of paperwork that crosses their desk. But it's not just a matter of saving them from hand cramps. When the president is travelling, time-sensitive documents – such as bills to keep the government open – may need a signature right away, and it's not always feasible to fly the original documents to wherever the president is. Still, the use of the autopen has long raised questions, because it opens up the possibility that anyone with access to the device could exercise presidential power, without a clear written record that the president himself approved it. The latest round of controversy concerns US President Donald Trump's claim that certain orders issued by his predecessor, Mr Joe Biden, are invalid because they were signed using an autopen . Among the contested actions are a series of preemptive pardons for high-profile adversaries of Mr Trump. Mr Trump has also suggested that aides to Biden may have affixed Mr Biden's signature to official documents without the president's authorisation. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw acts against 4 law firms, 1 lawyer over seized properties Business 'Some cannot source outside China': S'pore firms' challenges and support needed amid US tariffs Multimedia From local to global: What made top news in Singapore over the last 180 years? World Trump arms Ukraine and threatens sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil Singapore Turning tragedy into advocacy: Woman finds new purpose after paralysis Opinion Sumiko at 61: Everything goes south when you age, changing your face from a triangle to a rectangle Sport World Aquatics C'ship women's 10km open water swimming event delayed by a day due to water quality Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun In an interview with the New York Times on July 10, Mr Biden denied the charge . 'I made every decision,' he said. He added his use of the signing device for clemency actions was a practical decision because 'we're talking about a whole lot of people.' The Trump White House, the Justice Department and Congress have all launched investigations into Mr Biden's use of the autopen. Here's what to know about the device that has repeatedly been implicated in presidential controversies. What is an autopen? An autopen is a device that replicates a signature using a mechanical stylus, making the signature appear to be handwritten. The earliest mechanical writing device, patented in 1803, allowed users to create a duplicate of the letter they were writing by connecting two pens through a system of levers. The user would write with the first pen, and the second would move across a second piece of paper in synchrony. President Thomas Jefferson used it extensively, calling it 'the finest invention of the present age.' The technology eventually evolved to the point where a robot arm could duplicate a signature without the user's involvement. Those robotic autopens became popular across the federal government in the 1940s, when Mr Harry Truman became the first president to use one. How have presidents used autopens? At first, presidents used autopens to sign ceremonial mass mailings like holiday cards and letters of condolences. To maintain the illusion that correspondents were getting a genuine presidential autograph, the White House was typically circumspect about its use of the device. Then, in 1968, Mr Lyndon B. Johnson allowed his to be photographed for a National Enquirer article under the headline, 'The Robot That Sits in for the President.' In 2005, White House lawyers asked the Justice Department for an opinion on whether the president may sign a bill by autopen, which no president had done. The DOJ concluded that under the historical and legal meaning of the word 'sign' in the early republic, 'a person may sign a document by directing that his signature be affixed to it by another,' and that 'the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill to sign it.' What the president cannot do, the Justice Department said, is delegate the decision about whether to sign a bill. Mr Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill with an autopen when, in 2011, he remotely signed an extension of the Patriot Act with the device while in Europe. In all, he used it to sign at least seven time-sensitive bills. He also used it for at least 78 pardons in the last month of his presidency. Mr Trump told reporters he has used an autopen, but only for unimportant papers. Did Biden use autopens? Yes. According to the New York Times, Mr Biden used an autopen on 25 pardon and commutation warrants between December 2024 and the end of his presidency. He is also confirmed to have used an autopen to remotely sign a short funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration while traveling in San Francisco in May 2024. Whether he used the device in other cases is less clear. On March 6, the Oversight Project, an arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, sparked Mr Trump's interest in Mr Biden's usage of the autopen by pointing out that digital records of Biden's executive orders published in the Federal Register all appear to have the same signature. However, the Office of the Federal Register said that's true of all presidents: The publication has one graphic image of a president's signature that it uses on all presidential documents, and Mr Trump's executive orders, too, would all look like they had the same signature in the register. The versions archived in the official journal of the executive branch are not images of the actual signed orders. Is a pardon signed by autopen legally sound? During Mr Obama's presidency, Republicans raised objections to his use of the autopen to sign legislation. In 2011, a group of Republican members of Congress signed a letter demanding he re-sign the Patriot Act extension by hand and end the practice of signing bills with an autopen. However, the Obama administration leaned on the 2005 DOJ opinion to justify the use of autopens, and the practice was never challenged in court. Pardons present a separate use case from legislation, and presidents are probably on even firmer legal ground there. A 1929 Justice Department opinion on pardons held that 'neither the Constitution nor statute prescribed the method by which executive clemency shall be exercised or evidenced. It is wholly for the president to decide.' In 2024, a federal appeals court found that a presidential pardon doesn't even have to be in writing. The decision – which was issued in a case brought by an inmate who said Mr Trump had verbally promised to commute his sentence – found that 'nothing in the Constitution restricts the President's exercise of the clemency power to commutations that have been rendered through a documented writing.' A political scientist who assembled a database of clemency warrants issued by presidents since George Washington said it contained a large number of unsigned – but legally unquestioned – warrants. BLOOMBERG
