Cyprus has officially submitted the instrument of ratification of the BBNJ Agreement – the third implementing agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – to the United Nations, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cyprus to the UN, Ambassador Maria Michael, submitted the document to the Head of the Treaty Section of the UN Secretariat on 28 May 2025.
As it is noted, the BBNJ (Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) Agreement, which constitutes “the third implementing agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” aims at the “conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, both for the present and the long term.”
The Republic of Cyprus had signed the agreement on 20 September 2023, jointly with the European Union and the other EU member states. As an “island and maritime state,” Cyprus reaffirms its full support for UNCLOS and calls on “all UN member states that have not yet signed, ratified, or accepted the Agreement to do so as soon as possible in order to facilitate its early entry into force,” the press release said.
Alongside Cyprus, the EU, Latvia, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia, and Finland also submitted instruments of ratification.