Nato ends counter-piracy operation in the Indian Ocean |17 December 2016

As of Thursday this week the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) has formerly ended its counter-piracy operations known as Operation Ocean Shield in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Somalia as announced in July, citing a sharp drop in piracy attacks in the region and no successful attacks since May 2012.

The director general for protocol, treaties and consular affairs at the Foreign Affairs Ministry Ralph Agrippine has said Nato is one of the actors that have contributed significantly in efforts to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean.

But he noted that Operation Ocean Shield has achieved its mission in the region and Seychelles has greatly benefitted from capacity-building investments by the international community.

He added that Seychelles should see the end of the operation as a sign of the international community’s growing confidence in the region’s capacity to detect maritime threats and ensure its own security.

Nato has indicated that while it will be ending its mission in the Indian Ocean, the organisation “will remain engaged in the fight against piracy by maintaining maritime situational awareness and continuing close links with other international organisations’ counter-piracy actors”.

Nato has been supporting international efforts to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean, as well as in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa since 2008, at the request of the United Nations.

It had been working alongside other missions including the European Union’s Operation Atalanta, the US-led Combined Task Force 151 and other individual countries such as China, Japan and South Korea.

Lieutenant Colonel Jean Attala of the Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) said the latter operates independently and carries out its own planned patrols using the available local SPDF resources but noted that the SCG’s collaborations and interactions will continue with different warships that call at Port Victoria, as well as from ships that are part of other international coalitions such as EUNAVFOR, ATALANTA mission and the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) of which Seychelles is a member.