Enhancing maritime security at the centre of UNSC high-level debate   By Laura Pillay |12 August 2021

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday held a high-level open debate on ‘Enhancing Maritime Security: A case for international cooperation’, which was presided over by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.

PM Modi said that maritime routes are the lifelines of international trade but that these important routes are being misused for piracy and terrorism.

Furthermore, he called for removal of barriers for legitimate maritime trade, noting that any hindrances could significantly hurt the global economy.

He thus put forth five basic principles for maritime security: i) Free maritime trade sans barriers so as to establish legitimate trade; ii) Settlement of maritime disputes should be peaceful and on the basis of international law only; iii) Responsible maritime connectivity should be encouraged; iv) Need to collectively combat maritime threats posed by non-state actors and natural calamities; v) Preserve maritime environment and maritime resources.

Several heads of state and government of member states of the UNSC were in attendance, along with high-level briefers from the UN System and key regional organisations.

United States secretary of state Antony J. Blinken also called for coordinated and comprehensive responses to threats to maritime safety and security, including “illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, which undermines the sustainability of fish stocks, circumvents agreed conservation and management measures, and violate the sovereign rights of coastal states, and often goes hand in hand with the use of forced labour and other illicit activities”.

“Non-state actors also pose serious risk to maritime safety and security, from pirates and illicit maritime traffickers in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, to pirates and armed robbers in the Gulf of Guinea, to drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific. Yet our collective response to these actors shows how effective we can be when we work together to defend maritime order and hold those accountable who violate it,” Secretary Blinken stated.

He called for the sharing of information and coordinating responses, to help build the capacity of maritime partners, to engage with affected communities, industry, non-governmental organisations, which are critically important allies in this effort.

“Together, our nations have spent decades building this maritime order and the broader rules-based international system that it is a part of. We’ve done so out of a shared recognition that it benefits all our nations and all our people when governments accept certain constraints on their actions rather than living in a world where the strong do what they can and where those who are less powerful feel coerced and threatened,” Secretary Blinken added.

In July 2021 a bilateral agreement on countering illicit transnational maritime activity operations was signed by the Seychelles Minister for Internal Affairs Roy Fonseka, and the acting Deputy Chief of mission from the US embassy based in Mauritius, Thomas Kohr.

With the agreement, the United States Navy and the Seychelles Coast Guards are working together to protect the island nation’s territorial waters and vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Under the agreement, Seychelles will provide whatever resources it has, while the U.S. will bring assets including vessels and surveillance aircraft, as well as equipment and personnel towards strengthening policing within the region.