Contact Group on Piracy off the coast of Somalia (CGPCS) Chairman Faure attends high-level meetings in London |06 May 2017
Ambassador Barry Faure, chairman of the Contact Group on Piracy off the coast of Somalia (CGPCS), is in London attending important meetings in relation to piracy concerns and reconstruction of Somalia.
On Wednesday this week Ambassador Faure delivered a keynote address at the Oceans Beyond Piracy meeting with theme, ‘State of Maritime Piracy in 2016’.
He will also attend a major security conference on Somalia, again in London, as from May 11, 2017.
The first meeting hosted by the Oceans Beyond Piracy, OBP,a non for profit organisation based in Colorado in the USA and launched in 2010 by One Earth Future, exists to develop a response to maritime piracy through, mobilising stakeholders from the maritime community, developing public-private partnerships to promote long-term solutions at sea and ashore, and sustainable deterrence based on the rule of law.
At the OBP meetings which were chaired by Senior Fellow Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nuggent, Ambassador Faure in prepared remarks welcomed the opportunity to be in the fair city of London and remarked upon the success of the Port of London, located on the Thames River noting that since 1AD, the port has brought success and economic opportunities to the people of the United Kingdom.
“Seychelles, like our neighbours in the region, and all maritime states, understands only too well the importance of maritime trade, and what the free unimpeded movement on the high seas means to the survivability of a country and a people. Without it we fail and we fall,” said Ambassador Faure.
Various speakers at the meeting highlighted the constructive role that Seychelles has played in the fight against piracy liking it to a model for the world to refer to. The meeting also reflected on the "worrying picture" in the horn of Africa and on what measures need to be taken in the short to medium-term.
While in London the CGPCS chairman is scheduled to visit the UK’s National Maritime Information Centre, the EUNAVFOR’s Operational Headquarters in Northwood, as well as attend a maritime security meeting at Chatham House.
Ambassador Faure, following his meetings with OBP, was to call on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and will as well be attending the London/Somalia Conference on May 11, 2017 and hosted by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, with the President of the Republic of Somalia, convening as well heads of State from East Africa. The conference aims at accelerating progress on security sector reform and agree the new international partnership needed to keep Somalia on course for increased peace and prosperity by 2020.
In a separate message to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, Ambassador Faure thanked both the British high commissioner to Seychelles, Caron Röshler, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for organising his visit to attend the London/Somalia Conference 2017, as well as John Steed of Oceans Beyond Piracy.
While at the London events Ambassador Faure, in his capacity as chairman of the CGPCS, extended an invitation to interested parties to attend the 20th Plenary of the CGPCS, which this year will be held in Mauritius and co-hosted by the Indian Ocean Commission, from July 5 -7, 2017, under the theme, ‘Leaving a Lasting Legacy For the Region’.
Ambassador Faure is being accompanied in London by the Seychelles high commissioner to the Court of St James, Derick Ally.
He will return to Seychelles on May 12, 2017.