IMO Council Discusses Key Issues and Backs Second Term for Dominguez

The International Maritime Organization conducted its annual business meeting in London this week at a time when the industry faces key challenges ranging from the security of seafarers to the discord over plans to advance maritime decarbonization. It concluded the session, reporting that it is backing extending the mandate of the current Secretary-General of the IMO, Arsenio Dominguez, for a second four-year term.

Dominguez is the tenth Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, having been elected in July 2023 and beginning a four-year term on January 1, 2024. The Council reported that it will submit in late 2027 its decision to extend Dominguez’s mandate to the full IMO Assembly for approval. His second four-year term will run from January 1, 2028, to December 31, 2031.

Arsenio Dominguez, who is interviewed in the current issue of The Maritime Executive (September-October 2026), took the reins of the organization at a particularly challenging time. He was first appointed in 2004 as the alternate representative of Panama to the IMO, and starting in 2014, he was appointed Ambassador of Panama to the IMO. Dominguez, who is a naval architect, has more than 25 years of professional experience in the international maritime world. He served as the director of the Marine Environment Division, a position he assumed in 2017, as well as a member of the Senior Management Committee of the IMO.

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