Official Languages

The IMO has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Assembly resolutions, Council decisions, and committee reports are translated into all six. Three of them, English, French, and Spanish, are the working languages in which the Secretariat produces pre-session, in-session, and post-session meeting documents. An amendment to the IMO Convention added Arabic, Chinese, and Russian as authentic texts of the Convention, alongside the original English, French, and Spanish. The distinction between the six official and three working languages governs which documents are produced in which languages.