Facility Agreement concluded with Czech Republic

An International Monitoring System Facility Agreement has been signed on 13 November 2002 by Mr. Wolfgang Hoffmann, Executive Secretary of the Commission and Mr. Pavel Vacek, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the CTBTO Preparatory Commission. The Agreement regulates the establishment, operation, financing and maintenance of the auxiliary seismic station at Vranov (AS26), the Czech Republic, and gives authority to the Commission to carry out necessary activities on the facility. The Agreement will enter into force on the date on which the Government of the Czech Republic has informed the Preparatory Commission that the national requirements for such entry into force have been fulfilled.

Eighty-nine States hosting the International Monitoring System facilities of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission are required to conclude bilateral Facility Agreements in accordance with paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Protocol to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty. As of 14 November 2002, 22 IMS facility agreements or arrangements including the one with the Czech Republic have been concluded, of which 15 have entered into force and two are being applied provisionally. Legal arrangements in the form of facility agreements or arrangements, or interim exchanges of letters, have now been concluded to regulate the Commission's activities at 309 of the 337 monitoring facilities, hosted by 76 of the 89 host States.