Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Canadian Treaty Series

General Agreement between Canada and Belgium concerning the Transit through and Stationing in Belgium of Canadian Forces [1953] CATSer 4 (29 July 1953)

E100895 - CTS 1953 No. 15

GENERAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CANADA AND BELGIUM CONCERNING THE TRANSIT THROUGH AND STATIONING IN BELGIUM OF CANADIAN FORCES

THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE BELGIAN GOVERNMENT,

BEING parties to the North Atlantic Treaty signed at Washington on April 4, 1949;

CONSIDERING that the North Atlantic Treaty provides for the cooperation of the contracting states in developing their individual and collective capacities to resist armed attack;

CONSIDERING that the Government of Canada has obligations resulting from the presence of their forces on the European continent;

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

ARTICLE 1

The Belgian Government will permit Canadian Forces to pass in transit through and to be stationed in Belgium whenever this appears to the two Governments to be necessary in order to ensure supplies to Canadian forces stationed on the continent of Europe, or in order to comply with any recommendations of the North Atlantic Council or of its competent organs.

ARTICLE 2

The Belgian Government shall place at the disposal of the Canadian Forces such facilities and services as are mutually agreed by the appropriate authorities of the two Governments to be necessary to carry out the mission of the Canadian Forces.

The technical details and administrative procedures concerning the provision of facilities and services mentioned in the preceding paragraph and the methods of payment therefore will be determined by separate arrangements between the appropriate authorities of the two Governments.

ARTICLE 3

The fiscal regime applied in respect of expenditures made in Belgium by the Canadian Government for Canadian forces stationed in Belgium shall not be less favourable to Canada than that which may from time to time be in effect between Belgium and any other party to the North Atlantic Treaty for the forces of that State stationed in Belgium.

ARTICLE 4

The provisions of the agreement between the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty on the status of their forces signed at London on the 19th June, 1951, shall, whether or not that agreement has come into force, be applied as regards the forces to which the present agreement relates, except in so far as these provisions may be notified by article 3.

ARTICLE 5

If the Belgian Government should so request, the Canadian Government shall permit the stationing of Belgian military units in Canada for North Atlantic Treaty purposes, on conditions similar to those applicable under this agreement.

ARTICLE 6

The present Agreement shall be subject to ratification and shall enter into force on the exchange of instruments of ratification.

ARTICLE 7

The present Agreement shall remain in force as long as the mutual assistance obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty signed at Washington on April 4, 1949, remain in force between the two Governments, unless it is terminated previously by agreement between the two Governments.

DONE at Brussels in both the English and French languages, both texts being equally authoritative, this 30th day of March, 1953.

Maurice Pope

FOR CANADA

Paul Van Zeeland

FOR BELGIUM