A treaty is a formal written agreement entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may be known as an international agreement, covenant, pact, or exchange of letters, among other terms. Regardless of terminology, only instruments that are binding upon the parties are considered treaties subject to international law. Treaties can be loosely compared to contracts, in that the parties willingly assume binding obligations among themselves, any party that breaches its obligations can be held liable under international law. Treaties vary in substance and complexity, may govern a wide variety of matters, such as territorial boundaries and commerce, political alliances, more. International law on treaties have been codified by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which sets forth the rules and procedures for creating, enforcing and interpreting treaties; as one of the earliest manifestations of international relations, treaties are recognized as a primary source of international law.

A treaty is an official, express written agreement that states use to bind themselves. A treaty is an official document. There is no prerequisite of academic accreditation or cross-professional contextual knowledge required to publish a treaty. Since the late 19th century, most treaties have followed a consistent format. A treaty begins with a preamble describing the "High Contracting Parties" and their shared objectives in executing the treaty, as well as summarizing any underlying events. Modern preambles are sometimes structured as a single long sentence formatted into multiple paragraphs for readability, in which each of the paragraphs begins with a gerund; the High Contracting Parties. His Majesty The King of X or His Excellency The President of Y, or alternatively in the form of " Government of Z". However, under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties if the representative is the head of state, head of government or minister of foreign affairs, no special document is needed, as holding such high office is sufficient.

The end of the preamble and the start of the actual agreement is signaled by the words "have agreed as follows". After the preamble comes numbered articles, which contain the substance of the parties' actual agreement; each article heading encompasses a paragraph. A long treaty may further group articles under chapter headings. Modern treaties, regardless of subject matter contain articles governing where the final authentic copies of the treaty will be deposited and how any subsequent disputes as to their interpretation will be peacefully resolved; the end of a treaty, the eschatocol, is signaled by a clause like "in witness whereof" or "in faith whereof", the parties have affixed their signatures, followed by the words "DONE at" the site of the treaty's execution and the date of its execution. The date is written in its most formal, non-numerical form. For example, the Charter of the United Nations was "DONE at the city of San Francisco the twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-five".

If the treaty is executed in multiple copies in different languages, that fact is always noted and is followed by a stipulation that the versions in different languages are authentic. The signatures of the parties' representatives follow at the end; when the text of a treaty is reprinted, such as in a collection of treaties in effect, an editor will append the dates on which the respective parties ratified the treaty and on which it came into effect for each party. Bilateral treaties are concluded between entities, it is possible for a bilateral treaty to have more than two parties. The treaty establishes rights and obligations between the Swiss and the EU and the member states severally—it does not establish any rights and obligations amongst the EU and its member states. A multilateral treaty is concluded among several countries, establishing rights and obligations between each party and every other party. Multilateral treaties may involve states across the world. Treaties of "mutual guarantee" are international compacts, e.g. the Treaty of Locarno which guarantees each signatory against attack from another.

Reservations are caveats to a state's acceptance of a treaty. Reservations are unilateral statements purporting to exclude or to modify the legal obligation and its effects on the reserving state; these must be included at the time of signing or ratification, i.e. "a party cannot add a reservation after it has joined a treaty". Article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties in 1969. International law was unaccepting of treaty reservations, rejecting them unless all parties

Sven Sester is an Estonian politician and former Minister of Finance. Sester was born on 14 July 1969 in Estonia. After graduating from high school in 1987, he studied Economics and Information Technology at the Tallinn University of Technology. From 1990 to 1991 he worked for the Mainor Centre for Public Opinion Research as data processing specialist. From 1991 to 1992 he was a manager for the Selected Daily Mail Joint Enterprise. From 1992 to 1999 he worked for ERI Real Estate Ltd in management, he became chairman of the board at Baltic Real Investments plc. From 2003 to 2005 he served as chairman of the supervisory board of Eesti Loto, he has been a member of the management board of Roosikrantsi Hotell Ltd. since 2007. Sester is president of the Estonian Tournament Bridge League, member of board of Lions Club Tallinn VIA and vice president of the Association of Estonian Small and Medium Businesses. In 1999, Sester joined Res Publica Union. From 2002 to 2003, he was deputy chairman of the financial committee in Tallinn city council.

From 2003 to 2007, as a member of Riigikogu he was deputy chairman of the economic affairs committee. In 2009 he worked in the economic affairs committee and became chairman of the financial committee of parliament, he serves as a board member of his party. In 2015 parliamentary election, Sester lost his seat in the parliament. There was confusion over the results, as after the initial vote count, fellow IRL candidate Viktoria Ladõnskaja was ahead Sester by one vote, but the recount put Sester ahead by one vote. Ladõnskaja asked for a second recount, which ended up with 1,393 votes for Ladõnskaja and 1,392 for Sester. On April 9, 2015, Sester was nominated the Minister of Finance in Taavi Rõivas' second cabinet. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors

Balakrishna Vishwanath Keskar was an Indian politician and Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting between 1952 and 1962. Remembered for creating the Vrinda Vadya and promoting classical music through All India Radio, India's longest serving Minister for Information and Broadcasting, was responsible for banning Hindi film music, cricket commentaries and the harmonium on All India Radio. Born in Pune to Vishwanath Keskar in 1903, Keskar was educated at the Kashi Vidyapith and the Sorbonne from where he earned a D. Litt degree. Keskar worked as a lecturer at Benaras' Sanskrit Vidyapith and was trained in dhrupad by Hari Narayan Mukherji of Banaras. Keskar joined the Indian National Congress during the Non Cooperation Movement of 1921 and served as a Secretary in the Foreign Department of the All India Congress Committee during 1939–1940 and was a General Secretary of the party in 1946. Keskar served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India representing the United Provinces. After Independence, Keskar was appointed a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of External Affairs and in the Ministry of Railways and Transport between 1948 and 1952.

In 1952, he was elected to Parliament from Sultanpur and was made Minister of Information and Broadcasting a post he held from 1952–1962. Keskar was twice elected to Parliament from Musafirkhana. Keskar was the third person to head the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in independent India and had a decade long tenure at the helm, making him the longest serving minister in that ministry. Keskar believed Indian music had degenerated under the British, he held that centuries of Muslim rule had divorced Indian music from Hindu civilization and caused its bifurcation through the emergence of Hindustani music. Keskar belonged to a generation of Maharashtrian Brahmins who sought to reassert Hindu cultural influence in classical music by purging Islamic influences which they believed had led to its eroticisation and drift from its spiritual core. Keskar deemed film songs vulgar and Westernised; this led him to impose a 10 percent quota on airtime for film music and subsequently to ban the broadcasting of film music on All India Radio.

Film music had a growing audience in India and Keskar's decision to ban it on All India Radio allowed Radio Ceylon to capitalise on the opportunity. Radio Ceylon, which had launched its Hindi Service in 1950, attained great popularity throughout India with its programs like the Binaca Geetmala, Purani Filmo Ke Geet and Aap Hi Ke Geet, it set up a Radio Advertising Services in Bombay to rake in advertising revenue. All India Radio began to lose listeners and revenue forcing it in 1957 to launch the Vividh Bharati service. Keskar was responsible for banning cricket commentaries and the harmonium on All India Radio; as General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, Keskar had noted that cricket would not survive the British Raj, arguing that its popularity in India depended on an "atmosphere of British culture and language". Though his statement had drawn much opposition, Keskar chose to ban cricket commentaries and was subsequently forced to repeal his decision and allow live cricket broadcasts.

Keskar has however been credited with providing the common man with access to classical music and musicians with patronage that had disappeared with the abolition of princely states after independence. It was under Keskar's initiative that the National Programme of Music, since broadcast over All India Radio on weekends, was begun in 1952. In 1954, the annual Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan was started by All India Radio that served as a platform for both established and emerging young artistes in Indian classical music. Keskar was responsible for the establishment of the Vadya Vrinda as a national orchestra and created a new genre of'light music' by commissioning the sitarist Ravi Shankar to head the Vadya Vrinda and to provide a'light' musical alternative to the classical musical broadcasts. Despite his decade long tenure, Keskar remained politically a lightweight and never enjoyed cabinet rank with the ministry being lowered in rank to that of a Minister of State during his second stint from 1957–1962.

Keskar lost the General Elections of 1962 from Fatehpur and was defeated again, this time by the Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, in the bye-election from the Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency in 1963. Indira Gandhi is said to have told Roberto Rossellini that Keskar had managed to retain his post for so long only because there was an "acute shortage of ministerial talent" in newly independent India. Keskar authored and edited several books including Indian Music: Problems and Prospects and India -The land and people and headed the National Book Trust. Keskar died in Nagpur on 28 August 1984