Mauritius to Host Second Regional Ministerial Conference on Piracy

The Second Regional Ministerial Conference on Piracy will be held in Mauritius on 7 October 2010, in collaboration with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).

The Conference will aim at building on the momentum created by previous meetings to address the scourge of piracy. It will also discuss on a comprehensive multilateral approach to fight piracy based on an Action Plan with short, medium and long term measures.

Ministers from countries of the region, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) and Vice-President of the European Commission, Baroness Catherine Margaret Ashton, as well as representatives of international and regional organisations, including the United Nations, the International Maritime Organisation, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, the EU-Led Naval Force and SADC, will attend the Conference.

Piracy, particularly off the coast of Somalia and in the Indian Ocean, has become an international problem which adversely impacts on economies. Piracy has polarised attention since the beginning of 2009 though Mauritius has not so far been directly affected. However, the risks remain given that the area of operations by pirates has been continuously expanding from the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin towards the borders of Mauritius’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Measures taken by Mauritius to counter piracy include an increased surveillance of the maritime zone north of the EEZ and the signature in March 2010 of a Memorandum of Understanding prepared by the International Maritime Organisation, commonly known as the Djibouti Code of Conduct which makes provision for the repression of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the Western Indian Ocean.

Moreover, Mauritius, along with other East African States, signed in November 2009 a Political Declaration for the setting up of an appropriate framework for the improvement of cooperation at regional level among East African States to address international threats such as organised crime, illicit trafficking and terrorism with the assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.