International piracy and the challenges of new Arctic Ocean corridors opening up as a result of global warming topped the agenda on Wednesday at a gathering of world maritime powers.
“The menaces from climate change cause growing concern,” US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said. “There is a global security implication of the climate change. The North West passage will be open most part of the year, the new generation of naval students will live in a different world.”
A total of 101 countries are attending the 19th International Seapower Symposium, a three-day meeting occurring every two years, which aims to increase trust and confidence among naval leaders from around the world.
“At a time of great challenge, our task is to see how our mutual efforts can safeguard peace and security in the 21st century,” US Navy Commander Admiral Gary Roughead said in his opening remarks.
Mabus agreed.
“Our navies increasingly think in terms of joint operations and meet their counterparts in South America, Europe or Africa to combat the world maritime challenges,” Mabus said.
He cited piracy as just one example, as well as joint drug-trafficking operations and medical missions.
The conference, which had its start in 1969 during the Cold War, is being held at the Naval War College, a school of higher learning for naval officers based in Newport.
Mabus also praised an increasing spirit of maritime cooperation that led even countries that have been combatants in the recent past — like Russia and Georgia — to attend the international summit.
In a video message to the gathering, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also stressed the importance of international cooperation in confronting current maritime challenges and in forging greater maritime security, declaring that “no one nation has the capacity to meet these challenges alone.”
Roughead said cross-border cooperation was more in evidence in the international fight against piracy — particularly off the coast of Somalia, which over the past few years has become a hotbed of international hijacking and high sea robbery.
“In the Gulf of Aden, 20 nations are participating — not only navies, but also the airforce and the prosecutors,” he said.
He was speaking as the French military said Somali pirates had attempted to storm the French navy’s 18,000-tonne flagship in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel.
The crew of La Somme, a 160m command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two lightweight skiffs and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.
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