The States Parties to the present Convention, hereinafter referred to as “the Parties”,

with the purposes of further development of the cooperation in consular field, striving in the interests of its citizens to improve the system of protection of their legitimate rights and interests within the territories of third countries,

striving to develop the provisions of Vienna Convention on Consular Relations dated 24 April 1963, as well as of relevant bilateral conventions,

reaffirming that the norms of international law, multilateral and bilateral international treaties shall be applied relating to the issues that are not stipulated for by this Convention,

have decided to conclude the present Convention and have agreed as follows:

Article 1

The Parties shall promote comprehensive cooperation of consular services in various spheres of consular activities and shall exchange the experience of their work through consultations, organization of seminars, exchange of trainees and establishment of various types of connections between themselves.

Article 2

The Parties by mutual consent in each specific case shall render each other mutual assistance in third states by approbation of the latter in cases when there are no diplomatic and consular missions of one of the Parties, regarding protection of rights and interests of the citizens of the Parties.

This assistance shall be rendered within the framework of competence of diplomatic or consular mission and shall concern:

  • informing through diplomatic channels about accidents or deaths of citizens of the Parties;
  • rendering of assistance, when possible, to the persons who have suffered from accidents or emergencies, and informing of consular service of relevant Party;
  • assistance to the search of missing persons with subsequent transmission of obtained information to consular service of the state of their citizenship;
  • obtaining information about the citizens of the Parties who have been detained or arrested within the state of residence, and informing of consular service of the state of their citizenship;
  • informing about the issues of medical and legal assistance within the state of residence through providing data about relevant specialists;
  • requesting and transmission of documents necessary for protection of legitimate interests of citizens regarding social, legal, hereditary, property and other matters;
  • study of consular-related matters of activity of the state of residence and mutual informing about them.

Article 3

The Parties shall inform each other about attempts of use of forged passports and visas and falsification of other documents by the citizens of the Parties.

Article 4

Financial assistance, repatriation costs and other possible expenditures caused by rendering assistance in accordance with Article 2 of this Convention, shall be covered at the expense of the country of citizenship of the victim.

Article 5

Consular fees for the actions of a Party conducted to protect the rights and interests of legal entities and individuals of other Parties shall be collected at the rate of consular fees of the first Party to compensate its expenditures for the mentioned actions.

Article 6

The issues of protection of rights and interests of the citizens of the Parties shall be settled through diplomatic channels by mutual consent in each specific case, proceeding from possibilities and competence of diplomatic and consular missions of the Parties.

Article 7

The Parties shall exchange through diplomatic channels the lists of their diplomatic and consular missions in third countries and shall subsequently inform each other about their opening and closing.

Article 8

The present Convention is without prejudice to the obligations of the Parties under other international treaties to which they are parties.

Article 9

The present Convention may be amended and supplemented by mutual consent. Amendments and supplements shall be made in the form of separate protocols, which shall constitute integral part of the present Convention and shall enter into force in accordance with Article 10 of the present Convention.

Article 10

The present Convention shall enter into force-on the date of deposit of the third notification about fulfillment by the states parties to the present Convention of internal procedures necessary for the present Convention to enter into force. In respect of the Parties that deposit their notifications after such date, the Convention shall enter into force on the date of receipt by the depositary of such notification.

Article 11

The present Convention shall be open for accession by other states that acquired membership in the GUUAM and share the objectives and principles of the Convention.
The accession to the present Convention shall be effected by the deposit of the instrument of accession with the depositary. For acceding Party the Convention shall enter into force on the date of receipt by the depositary of the instrument of accession.

Article 12

Each Party may denounce the present Convention by written notification addressed to the depositary and sent through diplomatic channels. For such Party denunciation shall take effect three months after the date of receipt of the notification by the depositary.

Done at the city of Yalta on the 7th of June 2001 in a single true copy in the Azerbaijani, English, Georgian, Moldovian, Russian, Uzbek and Ukrainian languages, each of them being authentic.

The true copy shall be deposited in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which shall be depositary of the present Convention, and which shall send its certified copy to the each member state of the present Convention.

(entered into force 9 December 2002)