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In face of 'unacceptable attacks' on shipping, India and Liberia launch group to advocate maritime safety
United Nations, Sep 25 (IANS) In the face of "unacceptable attacks on commercial shipping and merchant marines", India and Liberia, the two largest maritime forces launched an international group to advocate for maritime safety, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday. "As a major source country for seafarers, India has joined hands with Liberia, which hosts the largest shipping registry by tonnage on this planet", to launch the Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers, he said a news conference with Liberia's Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti. "In recent months, the world has seen unacceptable attacks on commercial shipping and merchant marines. They are legally and morally indefensible", he said. "Put simply, these attacks must stop", he said. The attacks have stretched from the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf to the Red Sea and the Black Sea, and there can be no justification for them, he said. Nyanti said India and Liberia, "together, we are the picture of what goes across our waters every day and night. When Liberia's regulatory reach meets India's maritime workforce, our shared responsibility to the global commons becomes undeniable". "The Group of Friends is not a symbolic gesture", she said. "It's an action-driven multilateral coalition within the framework of the International Maritime Organization and International Labor Organization". "We intend to use our collective weight to shape maritime policy, raise operational standards, and safeguard the men and women at sea", she said. EAM Jaishankar said maritime shipping accounts for four fifths of the global trade and was $35 trillion last year and two million people work in the maritime sector. The attacks on shipping are "threatening the basic needs of the international community, including food, fuel, fertilizer, and financial services – four Fs", he said. "Our initiative is meant to add to the factors stability and confidence in what is otherwise uncertain and perilous world", he said. Nyanti said the group has three "non-negotiable goals", which are: Demanding uncompromising technical standards, stringent vessel compliance, and coordinating environmental stewardship; Defending commercial sea lanes against piracy, arm attacks, regional instability, and asymmetric threats, and centering the human beings who keep our world running. "Seafarers must never be treated as expendable cargo that can just be dumped over the dock over the sea and thrown into unforgetfulness", she said. Earlier at the meeting of the 25 countries of the Friends Group, EAM Jaishankar said two days ago an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged bulk carrier, MV Cape Dove, was attacked in the Gulf of Oman, killing an Indian sailor. And 10 days before that, a Panama-flagged oil tanker, El Gaya, was struck in the Strait of Hormuz. An Indian crew member went missing. “These, regrettably, are no longer exceptional occurrences,” he said. He also cited two attacks in the Black Sea. The chief officer of the MV Omorfi, an Indian national, was killed when the vessel was hit in Russian territorial waters on 18 July, he said. The next day, four Indian seafarers died after the MV Golden Leo was struck following its departure from Odessa. The victims were not only Indian, EAM Jaishankar said. Sailors from other countries had also been casualties of attacks this year. A vessel’s flag and its crew members’ nationalities are often different, making a response by governments acting together especially important, he said. The group would serve as a joint forum for countries involved in shipping, registration and crewing, he said. EAM Jaishankar said the group's members included major ship-owning nations, countries with large ship registries and those supplying many of the world’s seafarers. --IANS al/as
