Introduction

1. On 13 January 1998, the Agent of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines filed in the Registry of the Tribunal a Request for the prescription of provisional measures in accordance with article 290, paragraph 5, of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereinafter “the Convention”) concerning the arrest and detention of the vessel M/V Saiga (hereinafter “the Saiga”). The Request was accompanied by a copy of the Notification submitted by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the Republic of Guinea on 22 December 1997 (hereinafter “the Notification of 22 December 1997”) instituting arbitral proceedings in accordance with Annex VII to the Convention in respect of a dispute relating to the Saiga. A certified copy of the Request was sent on the same day by the Registrar of the Tribunal to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guinea in Conakry and also in care of the Ambassador of Guinea to Germany.

2. On 13 January 1998, the Registrar was notified of the appointment of Mr. Bozo Dabinovic, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as Agent of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. On 20 January 1998, the appointment of Mr. Hartmut von Brevern, Attorney at Law, Hamburg, as Agent of Guinea, was notified to the Registrar.