​The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has announced that the original 2020 calendar of meetings has now been rescinded, as work gets under way to reschedule IMO meetings.

The Organization advised in a Circular Letter that the IMO Council, which is meeting by correspondence for its thirty-second extraordinary session (C/ES.32), is considering the reconstruction of the schedule of meetings for 2020, including the possibilities for virtual meetings. As discussions on the reconstruction of the schedule are still under way, the previously issued programme of meetings for 2020 (and preliminary programme for 2021) should not be used for planning purposes. Information regarding the rescheduling of postponed meetings and scheduling of future meetings will be made available in good time, to allow Member States and other participants to make appropriate arrangements.

All IMO meetings originally planned to be held between late March and July 2020 have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (read more here).

Resuming physical meetings will depend on guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UK Government, as well as the situation of IMO Member States.

A trial of a platform (KUDO) which provides for simultaneous interpretation into the six official languages of the Organization was conducted during one of a series of informal virtual discussion sessions being held to facilitate discussions during the current extraordinary session of the Council.