EU security head to visit for talks on piracy |20 May 2010
In her first mission to Africa, a key strategic partner for the EU, Baroness Ashton has also been visiting Tanzania and Kenya, where she has met the United Nations’ special representative for Somalia and key representatives of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government to discuss the issue of piracy in the region.
While in Seychelles, she will continue to explore options for effective and sustainable solutions to the question.
Ahead of her visit, Baroness Ashton said: “Piracy is one of the big challenges of our times, both for the region and for the international community. It undermines maritime security in the Indian Ocean and stability and development in the region.
“We need to tackle both the root-causes and the symptoms of the problem in a comprehensive manner. We want to build a partnership with the countries in the region towards sustainable solutions based on local ownership with international support.”
The EU is committed to a regional approach to piracy off the coast of Somalia, based on ownership of the countries concerned and EU support for their efforts to ensure the prosecution and detention of suspected pirates.
It has concluded transfer agreements with Kenya and Seychelles, and accords with other countries in the region are under discussion.
EU-Navfor Somalia – Operation Atalanta was launched in December 2008 to help protect World Food Programme ships delivering food aid to displaced people in Somalia, to protect vulnerable ships sailing in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, and to deter, prevent and repress acts of piracy and armed robbery.
The EU is also committed to stability and security in Somalia and to respond to the needs of the Somali people. In this context, the EU has just launched a mission in Uganda to train Somali troops.