Facility Agreement concluded with Guatemala

An International Monitoring System Facility Agreement has been signed on 26 November 2002 by Mr. Wolfgang Hoffmann, Executive Secretary of the Commission, and H.E. Juan Francisco Reyes López, Acting President of the Republic of Guatemala, at the Presidential House in Guatemala. The Facility Agreement regulates the conduct of activities and post-certification activities at the International Monitoring System auxiliary seismic station (AS037) in El Apazote, and authorizes the Commission to carry out necessary work on the facility. The signing ceremony was attended by the Vice-Minister of Energy, the Director General of the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology and the Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the CTBTO Preparatory Commission. The Executive Secretary pointed out that the Agreement will allow the technical work necessary to build the station to proceed, and committed continuing support to Guatemala through training courses and assistance in establishing Guatemala's national data centre. 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 26 November 2002, 23 IMS facility agreements or arrangements including the one with Guatemala 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.