Within the last few weeks, the United Nations Security Council held two debates on maritime security. One was a discussion on 6 August on the recent incident in the Gulf of Oman — the drone attack on the 49,992-dwt product tanker Mercer Street (built 2013) that killed two crew members. The second was a major open debate on maritime security held three days later.
The council has been pro-active in maritime security for a while, in particular, in order to address piracy off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Guinea. Yet, the new debates prove that the council is increasing its awareness for maritime matters.
And from the debates, there are lessons for the maritime industry.
Firstly, the debate on the MV Mercer Street attack documents that council members now pay high attention to security incidents at sea and threats to the freedom of navigation.
While there was no direct outcome from the debate, the fact that this discussion was held within a week of the attack indicates that we can expect the council to monitor and respond to maritime incidents much more rapidly and significantly then it has done in the past.
Secondly, the open debate on maritime security was remarkable in terms of the high level of representation.
Maritime security was addressed on the level of heads of state, with among others the prime minister of India, the presidents of Russia and Kenya addressing the council, while other members, such as the US and France, were represented by ministers of foreign affairs or defence. This proves that, in the eyes of the council, maritime security is now a top priority.
A broad range of issues were flagged at the debate, ranging from threats to freedom of navigation to maritime terrorism, different forms of blue crime, including piracy, smuggling or illegal fishing, and climate change and marine accidents.
Not all of these issues are direct concerns for the maritime industry. Indeed, the debate showed that the international community has no consensual understanding of which maritime security issues should be prioritised and whether economic or environmental concerns are the most urgent to be addressed.
Moreover, the alertness of the Security Council indicates that the centre of gravity of the maritime security debate is gradually shifting away from the International Maritime Organization and towards New York.
That not only implies that the maritime industry needs to ask itself what lines of communication it has to the UN Secretariat and Council members, but also how the maritime industry associations might want to have a voice in future debates.
Ever more important is one of the major proposals that came out of the open debate that concerned whether maritime security requires a new institutional set up.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a new institutional structure for maritime security, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pleaded for a new framework for collaboration to be developed.
While the debate on the implementation of a new structure, which might well imply a new United Nations body, will not be settled quickly — as is usual at UN level — the maritime industry needs to ask itself how it wants to contribute to the process to represent its interests.
A new United Nations commission, committee or forum for maritime security will most likely not replace the various regional arrangements, such as the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), but rather complement it and coordinate the global level.
In the regional mechanisms, the maritime industry has a strong voice and is a pro-active contributor. Concrete strategies will be required on how the industry wants to contribute to a new global process.
The new awareness of the international community for security at sea is most certainly welcome, not least to ensure the safety of supply chains.
As in the case of the adoption of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code documents, new measures developed under the security agenda can be costly for the maritime industry. Therefore, paying close attention and bringing the voice of the industry to New York is indispensable.
Christian Bueger is a professor at the University of Copenhagen and one of the directors of SafeSeas.
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