AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA AND THE CABINET OF MINISTERS OF UKRAINE ON THE CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF PREVENTION OF DISASTERS AND ELIMINATION OF THEIR CONSEQUENCES

The Government of the Republic of Latvia and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, hereinafter referred to as the "Parties";

being guided by the Agreement on the Friendship and Co-operation Between the Republic of Latvia and Ukraine dated 23 May 1995;

being aware of the likelihood of disasters and existing danger to persons, national economy and environment;

recognising that co-operation in the sphere of prevention of disasters and elimination of their consequences will promote the prosperity and safety of both States;

considering the benefits which may be brought to the Parties by the exchange of scientific and technical information in the above-mentioned field;

taking into account the probability of disasters, which cannot be eliminated by own resources of the Parties and, hence, the subsequent need for co-ordinated actions of the Parties for the purpose of preventing and mitigating consequences of disasters;

supporting the UN efforts in the field of prevention of disasters and elimination of their consequences, respecting and acknowledging the generally recognised norms and rules existing within the framework of various international organisations, relevant international conventions and agreements, as well as aiming to contribute to the elaboration of appropriate national legislation;

have agreed as follows:

Article 1
Scope of application

1. The present Agreement shall establish principles and frameworks of mutual co-ordinated activities of the Parties in the field of prevention of disasters and elimination of their consequences.

2. The present Agreement shall be applied in the event of disasters, if the resources of the Party are deficient for the prevention of disasters or elimination of its consequences.

Article 2
Definitions

For the purposes of the present Agreement, a term:

1) "disaster" means an event, caused by devastating natural forces or human activity or omission, which severely threatens and/or damages human life, health, property and/or the environment;

2) "requesting Party" means the Party applying for assistance;

3) "assisting Party" means the Party providing assistance;

4) "assistance team" means an organized and trained group of specialists from the assisting Party, assigned to provide assistance and equipped as necessary;

5) "expert" means a specialist in a certain field sent to provide assistance to the requesting Party;

6) "equipment" means materials, technical and transport facilities, medicines and medical equipment and individual kits of the members of the assistance team and/or experts;

7) "goods of assistance" means material resources allocated for free distribution among the population affected by the disasters;

8) "Competent Authority" means the authority, designated by each of the Parties for the management and co-ordination of the activities, related to the implementation of the present Agreement;

9) "transit State" means a State of the Party through whose territory the assistance team and/or experts, equipment and goods of assistance are transported in order to provide assistance to third state.

Article 3
Forms of providing assistance

1. The Parties shall co-operate in accordance with the provisions of the present Agreement as well as internationally recognised norms and principles in order to provide prompt relevant information and assistance in the event of disasters or threat of its occurrence.

2. Assistance can be provided by sending assistance teams and/or experts, equipment, goods of assistance, as well as by providing necessary information and experience.

3. In the event of disasters in the territory of the State of one of the Parties, this Party may request assistance from the other Party in the prevention of disasters and elimination of their consequences. The assisting Party provides assistance to the requesting Party by means and measures aimed at preventing and/or eliminating consequences of the disasters.

4. The Parties provide each other assistance according to their possibilities.

5. The requesting Party ensures unhindered receipt and distribution of goods of assistance exclusively among the affected population.

Article 4
Competent Authorities and liaison points

1. The Competent Authorities of the present Agreement are the following:

For the Republic of Latvia:

the Ministry of the Interior;

For Ukraine:

the Ministry of Ukraine of Emergencies and Affaires of Population Protection from the Consequences of the Chornobyl Catastrophe.

2. The Parties can designate other authorities entitled to request assistance and pass decisions on the ways of implementation of the present Agreement.

3. The Competent Authorities shall nominate or establish one or several liaison points for purpose of notification in the event of disasters.

4. The Parties shall notify each other in writing through the diplomatic channels of any designation or change related to the Competent Authority, as well as to the liaison point(s).

5. Each Party shall ensure continuous functioning of its Competent Authority and liaison point(s).

Article 5
Request for assistance and information exchange

1. In the event of disasters the assistance is provided upon written request wherein the requesting Party specifies:

1) place, time, character, scale and current status of disaster in the affected area;

2) information on activities already carried out or planned, setting the priorities of the requested assistance.

2. The assisting Party shall immediately decide on providing assistance and inform the requesting Party about the possibility, scope, time and other essential conditions of it.

Article 6
Co-ordination and management of assistance in the event of disasters

1. The Competent Authority of the requesting Party shall co-ordinate, manage and supervise the activities of assistance teams through their leaders.

2. The requesting Party shall inform leaders of assistance team and/or experts about the development of the situation in the disaster area and at specific spots of activities and, if necessary, provide the assistance teams and/or experts with interpreters and means of communication with the headquarters, which shall co-ordinate all the search and rescue and other urgent activities.

3. The equipment of the assistance teams and/or experts should be sufficient to operate autonomously in the disaster zone during at least 72 hours from the moment of their arrival.

4. The requesting Party shall ensure security, free medical assistance, food and accommodation and also provide the members of the assistance teams and/or experts with first necessity goods in case their members run out of their stock.

Article 7
Border crossing procedure and the rules of stay for theassistance teams and/or experts

1. The requesting Party shall ensure prompt completion of all necessary formalities provided for in the legislation of the State of this Party upon crossing the state border by the assistance teams and/or experts of the assisting Party.

2. The leader of the assistance team shall submit to the respective border guard official of the requesting Party the following documents, certified by the Competent Authority of the assisting Party:

a) the document of prescribed sample agreed upon by the Competent Authorities of the Parties, indicating powers of the assistance team and/or experts and the aim of arrival to the territory of the State of the requesting Party;

b) the list of members of the assistance team and/or experts;

c) the list of equipment and goods of assistance.

3. Upon submitting the afore-mentioned documents the visas for the citizens of Ukraine shall be issued free of charge by the border guard official of the Republic of Latvia as a requesting Party, provided that each citizen of Ukraine is a member of assistance team and/or expert and has valid travel document.

The crossing of the state border of Ukraine as the requesting Party by persons who have documents mentioned in sub-paragraphs a)-c) of paragraphs 2 and 3 of Annex to the Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of Latvia and the Government of Ukraine on Mutual Travel of Citizens from 24 July 1997, who are the members of assistance team and/or experts, provided that each of them has one of the afore-mentioned valid travel document, shall be conducted without visa upon submitting the documents mentioned in paragraph 2 of this Article.

The driver of the vehicle if any shall present additionally to the valid travel document a document authorising to drive that vehicle and the registration certificate of the vehicle.

4. The procedure of crossing the state border of the requesting Party by assistance teams with rescue-dogs and their stay in the territory of the State of the requesting Party shall be determined pursuant to the quarantine rules in force in the territory of the State of the requesting Party.

5. The members of the assistance teams and/or experts staying in the territory of the State of the requesting Party are obliged to respect legislation of these States.

6. For the purpose of transportation of assistance teams and/or experts, their equipment and goods of assistance, any suitable vehicle can be used in order to reach the destination as soon as possible.

7. The border-crossing procedure in accordance with conditions of this Article shall be valid even when one of the States of the Parties is a transit state in respect of a third state requesting assistance in the event of disasters, and the transit is necessary to provide effective assistance. Competent Authorities referred to in the paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the present Agreement shall notify each other in due time about the necessity of transit to provide assistance to a third state and shall co-ordinate the procedure for the transit of the equipment and goods of assistance.

Article 8
Export, import and transit of the equipment and goods of assistance

1. The equipment, goods of assistance and assistance teams members' and/or experts' personal belongings that are imported and exported pursuant to the present Agreement shall be exempted from customs duties and another fees, if it is not contrary to the legislation of the States of the Parties.

2. Medicines containing narcotic and psychotropic substances may be imported only in quantities necessary for medical assistance purposes in accordance with the legislation of the State of the Parties. Only the qualified medical personnel in accordance with the relevant regulation shall use them. In this case the leader of the assistance team shall present to the customs control bodies a declaration listing medicines containing narcotic and psychotropic substances and indicating their nomenclature and amount.

3. The relevant authorities of the requesting Party may control the usage and storage of the above-mentioned materials and substances.

4. The medicines containing narcotic and psychotropic substances not used during the mission shall be taken out from the territory of the State of the requesting Party. The certificate on utilised medicines signed by the leader and the physician of the assistance team of the assisting Party and certified by the Competent Authority of the requesting Party shall be presented to the customs control bodies of the requesting Party upon the completion of the mission.

5. The conditions of this Article shall be also valid for transit of the equipment and goods of assistance through the territory of the State of one of the Parties in the event of providing assistance to a third state.

Article 9
Use of aircraft

1. The Competent Authority of the assisting Party shall inform the Competent Authority of the requesting Party on its decision to use an aircraft for providing assistance with the indication of the site of landing, the route of flights, type, registration number and country of the registration of the aircraft, number of crew members, the character of the cargo, timetable of flight and list of passengers.

2. The flights of aircraft shall be carried out pursuant to the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the Parties.

3. The assisting Party is exempted from any payments for flying over, landing, parking, taking off and navigating services for the aircraft, which provides assistance under the present Agreement.

4. Border crossing and customs control of aircraft shall be carried out by border crossing and customs offices of the requesting Party in landing places of aircraft.

Article 10
Reimbursement of costs

1. Unless otherwise agreed by the Parties, assistance within the framework of the present Agreement shall be provided free of charge.

2. The reimbursement for fuel and maintenance services of the aircraft used for providing assistance shall be settled by the Parties in each particular case.

Article 11
Reimbursement of damages

1. The Parties shall resign from any claim for reimbursement of damages related to injury or death of members of assistance teams and/or experts, which occurred during the implementation of activities under the present Agreement.

2. If a member of the assistance team and/or expert of the assisting Party causes damage to a legal entity or natural person in the territory of the State of the requesting Party during the activities under the present Agreement, this damage shall be reimbursed by the requesting Party according to the legislation in force, as if such damage was caused by its citizens while providing assistance.

3. The damage caused by a member of the assistance team and/or expert intentionally or by gross negligence shall be reimbursed by the assisting Party, under the circumstances that the fact of deliberate damage was proved by the court of the requesting Party.

Article 12
Other forms of co-operation

1. Within the scope of the present Agreement the Parties may co-operate:

1) in organizing of conferences and study visits of specialists, research and development programmes, training courses of experts, including the exchange of lecturers and trainees of respective educational institutions at the request of either of the Parties;

2) in supplying assistance teams with technical facilities and equipment;

3) in exchanging of experience;

4) in joint planning, elaboration and implementation of scientific research projects;

5) in exchanging of information, legislation, methodological and other literature, video and photo materials, as well as technologies related to the prevention of disasters and elimination of their consequences.

2. The Competent Authorities of the Parties and other authorities assigned in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 4 may establish other co-operation forms as well as conduct necessary relevant activities and establish working groups according to legislation of the States of the Parties.

Article 13
Co-operation with international and national organisations

Subject to mutual consent, the Parties may invite international and national organisations to join the activities related with the implementation of the present Agreement.

Article 14
Relationship to other international agreements

The present Agreement shall not affect any rights and obligations of the Parties under other international agreements.

Article 15
Settlement of disputes

Any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of the present Agreement shall be settled through negotiations between the Parties and in case of necessity through diplomatic channels.

Article 16
Amendments to the Agreement

1. The present Agreement may be amended by mutual consent of the Parties through Protocols, which will constitute an integral part of the present Agreement.

2. The Protocols shall enter into force pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the present Agreement.

Article 17
Final provisions

1. The present Agreement is concluded for unlimited period and shall enter into force on the date of the receipt of the last notification of the Parties confirming that their internal formalities necessary for its entry into force have been completed.

2. The present Agreement may be terminated by either of the Parties. In that case the present Agreement shall lose effect 6 months from the date, when one of the Parties received from other Party the written notification of termination of the present Agreement.

3. The termination of the present Agreement shall not affect the completion of obligations arisen out of its provisions and not completed by the moment of its termination.

Done in Riga on April 27, 2006 in two copies, each in the Latvian, Ukrainian and English languages, all the texts being equally authentic. In case of divergence concerning the interpretation of the present Agreement the English text shall prevail.

For the Governmentof the Republic of Latvia  Ainars Baštiks Minister for Children and Family Affairs

For the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine  Viktor Baloga Minister for Emergencies and Affaires of Population Protection from the Consequences of the Chornobyl Catastrophe