Table of Contents
ARGENTINA
Admiral José Luis Villán, Chief of the General Staff of the Argentinian Navy
Today, more than ever, countries need their navies to ensure the safety, prosperity, and conservation of their seas. Meeting the growing demand for natural resources, including energy, food, and minerals, is essential for their own development. Globalization, climate change, technological revolution, and increasing demographic pressure further exacerbate resource disputes. Furthermore, other security and “blue economy” issues fall within the scope of national and international regulations on the sea.
In this regard, to meet these threats it remains imperative that the state maintain presence at sea by deploying naval ships, aircraft, sensors, and command, control, communications, intelligence, and surveillance systems in coordination with other national and international agencies. Information is vital to become aware of the significant developments taking place at sea, so the data and knowledge acquired by monitoring and control activities are fundamental for decision-making.
A key to addressing these challenges is maritime domain awareness. A maritime situational awareness picture provides alerts for strategic planning and supports effective tactical operations. In turn, an information fusion center, where all pieces of data obtained from different sources are processed and analyzed, provides an understanding of what happens at sea.
Argentina is not oblivious to the existing state of affairs. The maritime status of Argentina, coupled with the geopolitical importance of the south Atlantic, pose increasing challenges to the nation: the protection of national maritime interests and the fulfillment of the country’s obligations under international maritime law. In line with this, the need for the protection of the ecosystem against illegal fishing and pollution, and to expand marine scientific knowledge, have substantially increased. By the same token, the protection of human life at sea in its vast area of responsibility demands high levels of efficiency.
The Argentine Navy is improving its maritime patrol, surveillance, and control capabilities. Long-range maritime patrol aircraft and new ocean patrol vessels meet presence requirements and provide naval authorities with the relevant information needed for decision making. This maritime situational picture is complemented by satellite information collected by the national space agency, as well as by the coastline radar installation plan, currently in its initial stage.
To face these challenges and provide a rapid response, the Argentine Navy is constantly working toward higher levels of training, equipment, and readiness, and in turn considers cooperation between governmental/nongovernmental national and international agencies to be of paramount importance.
AUSTRALIA
Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, AO, RAN, Chief of the Royal Australian Navy
Australia is a maritime nation and lies at the fulcrum of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Asian landmass those oceans border. Global competition has changed our reality across all the domains in which the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) operates. Geographically, Australia is in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, within a dynamic Indo-Pacific region.
The maritime domain is central to the security and prosperity of our nation. As resources become increasingly scarce, and the competition greater, all elements of national power must work together to achieve the desired outcomes for our nation, allies, and friends.
Stimulated by technological advances and the availability of information, the RAN has a crucial role to play to support our government, and it must evolve to prepare for a myriad of operational possibilities. This is the basis of our 2022 Headmark, a framework to which the RAN contributes to monitor and enforce international maritime law and a rules-based order.
First, the RAN will continue to operate its forces throughout our region alongside our allies and like-minded partners. Our forces will be equipped, trained, and sustained away from homeports so they are ready and able to take decisive action if threatened. This requires the RAN to have strong and trusting relationships with Australia’s neighbors and allies and to be able to integrate into multinational task forces for common purpose. In 2019, the RAN averaged 18 ships at sea at any one time, surging to 29 ships deployed across the Indo-Pacific through the region’s waterways, including the South China and East China Seas.
Second, domestically the RAN contributes to international maritime law and rules-based order through Operation Resolute, a whole-of-government effort to protect Australia’s borders and offshore maritime interests. And in the Pacific, through the Pacific Maritime Security Partnership, Australia is providing 19 Guardian-class patrol boats to Pacific Ocean states to help them monitor and secure their sovereignty and marine living resources.
Finally, since 1990, Australia has maintained a maritime security presence in the Middle East under Operation Manitou. This operation contributes to international efforts to promote maritime security, stability, and prosperity in this volatile region.
The RAN is integrated with the Australian joint force and operates effectively with our allies and like-minded partners, as the vastness of the maritime domain dictates that no one nation can do it alone.
BELGIUM
Rear Admiral Wim Robberecht, Commander of the Belgian Navy
In 2005, the Belgian federal and Flemish regional governments together decided to develop a Belgian Coast Guard Structure to coordinate the cooperation of 17 Belgian federal and Flemish regional entities, each with different responsibilities in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BNP). Two years later, with the creation of a Maritime Information Center (MIC), the Belgian Coast Guard Center was born. This operational center consists of two subcenters: The Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center in Ostend, responsible for safety issues, and the MIC in Zeebrugge for security matters.
During the ensuing 12 years, the MIC has acted as the point of contact for law enforcement at sea, protecting Belgian national maritime interests. The MIC operators of the Federal Maritime Police, the Maritime Brigade of Customs, the Maritime Security Cell of the Directorate of General Shipping, and the Navy monitor all activities in the BNP and establish maritime situational awareness (MSA). With the procurement of two new coastal patrol vessels in 2014–15, the Belgian Navy now is capable of high-speed maritime security interventions and military tasks throughout the BNP.
The Maritime Police and Maritime Customs operate their own naval assets, mostly in the Belgian territorial sea and Belgian harbors and execute border controls and interventions against drug trafficking and illegal migration. Coastal patrol vessels (CPVs) can embark several law enforcement teams, which have authority to maintain order in the exclusive economic zone. CPVs also can act as interagency command platforms at sea, have permanent communication with the MIC, and are equipped with two high-speed boarding intervention boats.
From 2012 onward, on a regular basis, the MIC has led interagency maritime security operations at sea (known as Operation OPERA) and has supported maritime antiterrorism operations. In October 2018, during GuardEx of the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Germany), the MIC led an antiterrorism exercise with several naval assets of partners and force enablers, such as helicopters equipped with fast-roping capability, special forces, fast-raiding interception special forces craft (FRISC) teams, and explosive ordnance clearance teams.
Beginning in 2021, the MIC will be equipped with a new command-and-control system and intelligence-gathering capability and will evolve from a MIC to a Maritime Operation Center for security issues and from MSA to maritime domain awareness. This upgrade will enhance the performance of the MIC as well as the operational output of its partner naval assets.
BRAZIL
Admiral Ilques Barbosa Júnior, Commandant of the Brazilian Navy
Like many navies worldwide, the Brazilian Navy (BN) is performing increasingly important roles to ensure maritime security. Emerging asymmetric threats have led countries to rethink their maritime security strategies, mainly considering nonstate actors that could risk their maritime trade.
The increased exploration of marine resources emphasizes the need for navies to operate together to monitor and enforce international maritime law and a rules-based order. With the blue economy, opportunities come with challenges. Maritime threats (piracy, terrorism, illegal and unreported trafficking, and exploration of resources), transnational by nature, present challenges that demand a collective approach. In the second half of 2019, for example, the largest maritime oil spill in Brazilian history occurred, probably caused by illegal activities, resulting in severe social and economic repercussions.
Maritime security is one of the missions carried out by the BN along four lines of effort. First, it is intensifying international cooperation and leading national interagency and joint operations. International engagements include a nine-year participation in the U.N. Maritime Task Force in Lebanon, an ever-increasing presence in the Gulf of Guinea, and around-the-clock planning and execution of the multinational Panamax exercise. Second, because the head of BN also is Brazil’s Maritime National Authority, it is possible to achieve better results in maritime security by combining this task with safety rules observation. Third, Brazil is realigning oceanpolitical (a neologism to highlight that the political use of the oceans follows its own dynamic) priorities and increasing the Navy’s diplomatic role toward the consolidation of the Peace and Cooperation Zone of South Atlantic (Zona de Paz e Cooperação do Atlântico). It was established, after a Brazilian initiative, with resolution 41/11 of the U.N. General Assembly in 1986). Finally, it is developing indigenous technology and joining technical agreements, such as the Trans-Regional Maritime Network, to enhance maritime domain awareness.
Unified command and control and permanent qualifications are crucial to manage these four parallel lines of effort. The recent inauguration of the BN Integrated Maritime Security Center (Centro Integrado de Segurança Marítima), aggregating means that formerly operated individually, proved to be worthy. Among other achievements, the Center was fundamental in providing response and investigation after the aforementioned oil spill. Furthermore, specific naval subcareers were created to develop qualified personnel for the Maritime Authority.
Maritime security is the primary concern of most navies. The vastness of maritime spaces requires collective and organized actions. The BN, in conjunction with foreign counterparts and national agencies, is ready for and will keep joining efforts that contribute to more secure waters.
CANADA
Vice Admiral Art McDonald, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy
Canada’s defense policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged,” declares that the rules-based international order is foundational to Canadian security and prosperity, observing that as a trading nation and globally engaged country, Canada benefits from global stability. To that end, the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN’s) worldwide naval operations, including partner capacity building, serve to defend the global system at sea and from the sea, both at home and abroad.
The RCN considers delivering maritime security as one of three enduring naval roles, alongside diplomacy and warfighting. Together this triad of naval effort contributes significantly to a “Strong, Secure, Engaged” Canada by: protecting Canada, Canadians, and our interests at home and abroad; contributing to the security of our continent in partnership with the United States; and enabling Canadian engagement in a world interconnected by oceans by demonstrating Canadian interest, contributing to deterrence, and projecting Canadian influence.
Given that the 21st century has seen the return of great power competition at sea, alongside enduring maritime security threats such as terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, and piracy, the RCN is “always on watch” at home as well as far from home, enforcing international maritime law and supporting an international order based on freedom of the seas.
At home, the RCN is a backstop for other government departments in upholding Canadian law in this country’s enormous ocean estates, a role growing with Arctic accessibility. Abroad, in the East China Sea, Canadian warships are performing maritime surveillance operations to help enforce U.N. sanctions prohibiting oil transfers to North Korea. Likewise, Canadian warships and submarines are continually working with NATO allies, especially in the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas, to demonstrate resolve and readiness. Canada commanded Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 in 2019. In the Middle East, the RCN has commanded Task Force 150 thrice since 2014 and deployed frigates regularly. For 14 years Canadian warships have patrolled in the Caribbean in partnership with U.S. and regional states in counternarcotic operations. The RCN also has supported capacity-building initiatives in Africa and Asia, highlighted by deployments of our naval dive teams, Naval Tactical Operations Group, and Naval Security Team.
Recognizing the significance and necessity of these contributions, Canada has embarked on the largest peacetime renewal of the RCN in its history to strengthen the RCN and Canada’s ability to continue playing a globally significant role in ensuring freedom of the seas.
CHILE
Admiral Julio Leiva, Commander-in-Chief, Chilean Navy
Chile is a country vitally dependent on the sea. Its past, present, and future are inextricably bound to the Pacific Ocean’s vast resources and endless communication possibilities.
The country’s unusual shape, with a 4,300 km coast; myriad of islands, channels, and fjords; exclusive economic zone (EEZ) five times the size of the land territory; robust presence in Polynesia and Antarctica; and enormous dependence on the maritime trade require a clear understanding of the relevance of an open, clean, and safe sea.
Accordingly, Chile has signed the most important legal instruments related to the law of the sea, demonstrating its commitment to promoting international law and cooperating through established institutions, agreements, and treaties.
Nevertheless, understanding that a robust legal body is not always enough, Chile has entrusted the role of defending the maritime domain and the control and security of its maritime interests to the Navy, which fulfills both tasks through its naval power and a specialized Coast Guard service—a model that blends defense and constabulary duties to optimize resources.
Maritime activities in the region, such as transport, fishing, scientific exploration, and recreation, are facing menaces such as pollution, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and the effects of an accelerated climate change.
To solve these problems by upholding domestic and international law at sea, the Chilean Navy is increasing presence, cooperation, and innovation.
As for presence, over the past 200 years, Chile has developed a blue-water navy capable of continuously operating within its huge area of responsibility. New projects are intended to cover existing gaps, including an Antarctic vessel, modernized maritime patrol aircraft, and an integrated system for maritime domain awareness.
Knowing that the demands of the vast ocean almost always exceed available resources, cooperation has proven to be the answer. Training, support, and alliances are some of the ways the Chilean Navy is working with other navies, substantially improving not only physical interoperability, but more importantly, mutual trust.
Finally, when technology and cyberspace are adding complexity to an already complicated scenario, innovation is crucial to the Chilean Navy. It will shorten the time to respond to problems through creative commercial solutions that will improve information management, boost electronic surveillance, and prepare sailors to adequately navigate and protect cyberspace.
If the high seas represent a “gray zone” where good order could be affected, the Chilean Navy plays a key role with an effective presence while efficiently operating with partners and creatively implementing fresh solutions to emerging problems.
COLOMBIA
Admiral Evelio Enrique Ramírez Gáfaro, Commander of the Colombian Navy
The Colombian Navy, through a planning process and execution of joint, combined, coordinated, and interagency operations, accomplishes its mission to “contribute to the defense of the Nation through the effective use of a flexible naval power in maritime, riverine, and terrestrial areas under its responsibility, to fulfill the constitutional function and participate in the maritime power development and protection of the Colombian national interests.”
To do this, the Colombian Navy is present in both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, where it exercises jurisdiction and enforces national and international maritime regulations through the Caribbean Naval Force and Pacific Naval Force, respectively. The Colombian Navy performs its duties through naval, coast guard, and marine corps components, which coordinate to control the sea and execute riverine operations oriented to safeguard human life at sea, as well as to deny the use of maritime areas to criminal organizations.
Similarly, the Colombian Navy, based on its Pentagonal Strategy, has designed and executed combined and coincident operations focused on leading the fight against drug trafficking in the region. For example, the Orion Naval Campaign, during its four developed versions under successive Navy leaders, brought together personnel, intelligence, and capabilities from more than 20 countries and 16 international entities to combat the transnational crime that affects not only Colombia but also countries and societies around the world. That coordination and leadership resulted in the seizure of 140 tons of cocaine and 37 tons of marijuana during its 150 days of operation, directly impacting the finances of transnational crime organizations.
Finally, following its military role, the Colombian Navy has tested its strategic capabilities with the final goal of keeping a high level of readiness to guarantee it can protect and defend national sovereignty.
DENMARK
Rear Admiral Torben Mikkelsen, Admiral of the Danish Fleet
Located at the entrance of the Baltic Sea, Denmark has for centuries relied on the sea as a vital source of income. Today, measured in gross tonnage, Denmark is the fifth largest maritime nation in the world, and the Danish merchant fleet is larger than ever before. The maritime industry is the single biggest export industry in Denmark; approximately 10 percent of global trade is transported by ships under Danish control.
The Kingdom of Denmark includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland, making the combined EEZ approximately one million square miles. Danish waters are among the most trafficked in the world, and they pose a significant navigational challenge that puts safety at sea into focus.
Danish straits are the main highway between the Baltic Sea and the global market. The ability to ensure safe passage therefore is of vital importance to the Danish community.
In Denmark, coast guard functions are assigned to the Royal Danish Navy, with the Navy operating in support of other governmental agencies. In Danish waters and in the Arctic and North Atlantic area, the Royal Danish Navy performs many other tasks, such as search and rescue, surveillance and enforcement of sovereignty, fishery protection, and hydrographic surveying.
Being one of the world’s largest maritime nations stretching across the North Atlantic, our area of interest is far beyond the EEZ—it is global.
Denmark relies heavily on free trade, and securing sea lines of communication and the freedom of navigation remain key priorities for the Royal Danish Navy. Therefore, Denmark regularly deploys naval assets overseas and remains focused on the importance of ensuring a safe maritime environment. An example is the operations in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea in recent years as a direct consequence of the massive increase in piracy and maritime crime.
The Royal Danish Navy is committed to ensuring maritime law and a rules-based order at sea through the standing NATO groups and with our partner nations. Thus, the Navy’s interoperability with partner navies and international engagement remain a key focus, and in the fall of 2020, Denmark is planning to deploy a frigate to the Strait of Hormuz to ensure safe passage and freedom of navigation.
FRANCE
Admiral Christophe Prazuck, Chief of Staff of the French Navy
France is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, a founding member of the European Union and of NATO, and, by virtue of its history and values, has a special responsibility in defending international law, wherever it is threatened. Furthermore, as custodian of the second largest EEZ in the world, spanning all oceans, France has a vested interest in comprehensive maritime domain awareness and upholding the law of the sea.
Threats to the rule of law at sea are increasing at an alarming rate, including piracy, disrespect of maritime borders, an increase in illegal fishing, and restrictions to the freedom of navigation. These malevolent activities, compounded by increasingly destructive natural events arising through climate change and growing coastal population centers, present a real challenge both to understanding the level of risk to the rules-based order in the maritime domain and the task of protecting it.
The French state operates a unique organization, the Action de l’Etat en Mer, to deliver efficient maritime security. Led by the Prime Minister with operational delegation of regional vice admirals, maritime security is facilitated through the coordinated response of all stakeholders, including the Navy, Gendarmerie, Customs, and Police.
Naval forces, in their warfighting role, also provide an essential contribution to enforcing a rules-based order, through global presence and persistence by means of monitoring and intelligence gathering, and if need be, enforcement and coercion.
To that end, the French Navy is permanently deployed not only in the waters around the mainland but also in far-flung places such as the Antarctic, Gulf of Guinea, and Polynesia. As well as delivering maritime security, the Navy provides immediate relief following natural catastrophes, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Furthermore, naval forces are a critical enabler in the collation of the global maritime picture, coordinated through our international maritime data fusion center in Brest.
Finally, it is my utmost conviction that international maritime domain awareness and security are best delivered using partnerships and alliances. Notwithstanding the bedrock of the nuclear deterrent, which is fully national and independent, the French Navy always strives to operate in a coalition, be it with our North Atlantic and European partners or other close allies, such as Egypt, the UAE, India, Japan, and Australia.
Vice Admiral Andreas Krause, Chief of the German Navy
The protection of the international rules-based order in accordance with international law is a key interest of Germany, as stated in the German government’s 2016 defense white paper. In addition to national and collective defense, international crisis-management operations are a main task of the German armed forces. The Concept of the Bundeswehr, released in 2018, further reiterates that, if internationally requested and mandated by the German parliament, the prevention of terrorist or unlawful acts at sea also falls within the responsibility of the German Navy.
The German armed forces are by design not intended to be used as an auxiliary police force. Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the responsibility for national and international law enforcement falls solely within the domain of Germany’s state and federal police forces. Therefore, a parliamentary mandate remains a key legal requirement for the German Navy to act in a law enforcement capacity.
Since the end of the Cold War, starting with the enforcement of U.N. Resolutions against weapons trafficking into former Yugoslavia in 1992, the German Navy has been engaged in crisis management operations around the globe, supporting international efforts against smuggling, illegal migration, and terrorism. From the beginning, these operations have been conducted within the framework of international coalitions and in support of international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO.
The German Navy is currently engaged in a number of international crisis-management operations in the Mediterranean Sea and in multinational operations to protect and secure the sea lines of communication in the Indian Ocean. Simultaneously, its ships are involved in the Standing NATO Groups as well as in a multitude of international forums and projects to strengthen cooperation and stability.
In the eastern Mediterranean, the German Navy regularly provides forces to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Since 2006, Germany has been engaged in the only maritime U.N. operation, preventing the flow of illegal arms into Lebanon and contributing to overall stability.
In the Aegean Sea, the German Navy is leading a NATO task unit, supporting NATO allies Greece and Turkey in coping with illegal migration in the area.
Looking at the Indian Ocean and the wider region around the Arabian Peninsula, the German Navy has been an integral part of the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta since 2008 and still contributes a maritime patrol aircraft to the operation on a regular basis.
In the new decade, the German Navy will remain committed to ensuring the enforcement of a rules-based order at sea in accordance with international law and with its partners and allies in NATO, the European Union, and the United Nations.
GREECE
Vice Admiral Nikolaos Tsounis, Chief of the Hellenic Navy Staff
The Hellenic Navy (HN), together with the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG), establishes a secure maritime environment in the areas of national jurisdiction and interest by the effective and efficient employment of its means and resources. In that effort, it maintains a robust maritime situational awareness with land-based sensors and naval and air assets. All information supplemented by data gathered by other governmental agencies is relayed to the Hellenic Fleet Maritime Operation Center, where it is correlated in a single recognized maritime picture. Promoting the importance of an interagency and cross-governmental approach, the HN supports the HCG in the national effort to disrupt the lines of illegal trafficking and migration—a phenomenon that unfortunately has been used as a means of political pressure by some countries. Furthermore, the HN contributes to HCG efforts in the framework of EU initiatives and programs related to maritime surveillance and sea border control, such as the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the European Border Surveillance System (EuroSur).
The HN participates in NATO operations (such as Operation Sea Guardian) and activities (such as Aegean Activity) with numerous assets, implementing the provisions of UNCLOS and a rules-based order. In a national operational context, the HN has assigned a number of assets to its Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Task Force, for the purpose of safeguarding national and allied interests in the area.
Through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the HN promulgates maritime security arrangements with several neighboring countries, promoting regional stability and prosperity; however, not all our neighbors share the same principles and values. The HN conducts common training at sea to synchronize efforts toward maritime security with eastern Mediterranean partners (such as Egypt, Cyprus, and Israel). Moreover, the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Center, a Greek-funded NATO educational and training facility, develops and delivers tailored expertise to allies and partners that builds and enhances their capacity to implement UNCLOS.
Finally, in view of an enhanced naval posture, the Hellenic Navy is in the process of acquiring new frigates that will reaffirm a strategic national footprint and further enhance its capacity to monitor and enforce international maritime law and the rules-based order. Furthermore, the HN frigates and P-3 maritime patrol aircraft squadron will be modernized with fully integrated weapon systems and sensors to improve the decision-making process of the commanders and the reaction time of crews.
Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of the Indian Naval Staff
The Indian Ocean is the third largest body of water in the world, covering an area of 70 million square kilometers and accounting for nearly 20 percent of water on the earth’s surface. The countries bordering the Indian Ocean are home to more than 2.5 billion people, or about a third of the world’s population. This region is home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world and accounts for about 50 percent of the globe’s seaborne trade, carried over its international sea lanes by more than 100,000 ships each year.
Given the expanse of the domain and its significance to human prosperity and security, our efforts have been to move toward a more secure maritime environment. The “Mission Based Deployment” philosophy of the Indian Navy allows us to deploy our task groups in areas of maritime interests year round. Their presence facilitates a high degree of situational awareness and timely response, should any contingency arise.
In terms of enhancing security in the region, joint EEZ patrols with some friendly countries, based on their request, and coordinated patrols with countries in the region, have helped police the region against a range of maritime security threats. Our sustained antipiracy operations off the Horn of Africa since 2008, with the 77th Indian Navy ship currently on patrol, are a testimony to our commitment to promote regional maritime security.
The Indian Navy also was one of the first maritime forces to respond to the security situation in the Persian Gulf region last year. Ever since, as part of Operation Sankalp, we have maintained presence in the region, escorting more than nine million tons of cargo on board 80 Indian-flagged merchant vessels.
To bridge informational gaps in the maritime domain, the Indian Navy is cooperating with like-minded navies by setting up coastal radar surveillance systems and sharing information through white shipping information-exchange agreements, which already have been concluded with nearly two dozen countries. The fused picture, available to all users as a result of the mutual agreements, significantly enhances maritime domain awareness in the region. This, in turn, helps maritime forces anticipate and respond rapidly to threats.
The Information Fusion Center–Indian Ocean Region (IFC–IOR), formally commissioned in December 2018 at Gurugram, India, demonstrates our commitment toward achieving collective maritime security in the IOR. The center has been welcomed by regional states, with 18 countries and 15 maritime security centers already partnering in the initiative, making it an important convergence center for the IOR maritime community.
As the world increasingly turns to the seas for resource and commerce, emerging threats and challenges in the maritime domain will continue to demand appropriate responses, singly as well as collectively, from all maritime nations. The preferred approach to counter this is through mutual cooperation and with due consideration to international legal norms.
I advocate two key principles while dealing with maritime security issues. First, maritime security should be pursued with an aim to ensure free, open, and inclusive seas in alignment with international laws that contribute to shared prosperity; and second, the nature of threats to maritime security necessitates using the collective maritime capability of all regional partners.
JAPAN
Admiral Yamamura Hiroshi, Chief of Maritime Staff, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Japan is a maritime nation that largely depends on overseas trade for energy resources and food supplies. To ensure international norms, such as the rule of law, freedom of navigation, and “open and stable oceans,” is fundamental to our peace and stability and also serves as a foundation for global prosperity.
Based on Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” vision, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) promotes defense cooperation and exchange with other regional countries, such as Australia, India, the ASEAN and Pacific Island countries, in addition to its treaty ally, the United States.
Japan strives to contribute to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region as well as promote mutual understanding and trust through various activities, including joint training with coastal nations along Japan’s sea lines of communication (SLOC).
In particular, through long-term deployments called “Indo-Pacific Deployments” (IPD), consisting of three destroyers (including an Izumo-class destroyer), the JMSDF has carried out training with other navies and made port calls in the region. In 2019, the JMSDF carried out a significant multilateral exercise with the Indian Navy, Philippine Navy, and U.S. Navy in the East China and South China Seas.
In addition, as part of the JMSDF’s regular ISR activities near Japanese waters in cooperation with other nations, such as Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the U.K., and the United States, we gather information on vessels suspected of violating U.N. Security Council Resolutions. During the period from 2018 to the end of June 2019, we confirmed 20 observations of North Korean vessels strongly suspected of engaging in illicit ship-to-ship transfers and made public announcements on the subject.
Japan has contributed to the maintenance of maritime order through counterpiracy operations off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden with sustained deployment of assets since 2009, while deepening cooperative relationships with other participating countries. As a result of the international efforts, the number of reported pirate attacks has remained low, although we will continue our counterpiracy activities.
Also, recognizing that peace and prosperity in the Middle East is critical not only for Japan but also for the international community, on 10 January the Minister of Defense of Japan ordered information-gathering operations in the region. Based on the order, JMSDF P-3Cs and the JS Takanami have engaged in an information-gathering mission since late January and February, respectively.
Japan will continue to contribute to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond by maintaining maritime order in cooperation with other navies.
LATVIA
Captain Kaspars Zelčs, Commander of the Latvian Naval Forces
The Latvian Navy is strongly engaged in monitoring and enforcing domestic and international maritime law in its area of responsibility. This task was assigned to the Latvian Navy in 1999, when law enforcement functions at sea were transferred from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Defense. This marked the beginning of the Latvian Coast Guard Service (LCGS), which became a subordinate unit to the Latvian Navy. Even though the Latvian Coast Guard Service has undergone several reorganizations during the past 20 years, as has the Navy itself, the primary tasks have remained unchanged.
The LCGS is responsible for search-and-rescue (SAR) operations in Latvia’s area of responsibility in the Baltic Sea, according to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), including running the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Riga and operation and maintenance of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. The LCGS responds to ship accidents and disasters, including spills of oil and other dangerous and hazardous substances into the sea. In cooperation with the State Environmental Service, the LCGS enforces compliance with the environmental and fishery regulations. The LCGS also coordinates, and if need be enforces, the implementation of laws and regulations that govern the use of Latvia’s EEZ and territorial sea. The LCGS is an administrative board and national communication center in accordance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security code.
The LCGS’s assets are provided by the Navy’s patrol boat squadron and distributed to three major ports of Latvia (Liepāja, Ventspils, Rīga) for SAR duty and oil spill response. This approach yields flexibility in planning and executing assigned tasks. The LCGS posts are manned by the Navy and complemented with civilian experts, as the latter retain much of the knowledge and expertise. This mix of expertise and knowledge enables the Latvian Navy to maintain comprehensive maritime situational awareness, which is primarily supported by surveillance vessels at sea and assets along the coast.
In the past two decades, the Latvian Navy has developed an effective model that allows it, in cooperation with other state agencies, to monitor and enforce domestic and international maritime law to the fullest extent.
NEW ZEALAND
Rear Admiral David Proctor, Chief of the Royal New Zealand Navy
As the head of a naval organization, I am expected to respond to “traditional” threats to the security and freedom of my nation in the maritime domain—state-on-state, symmetric and asymmetric, from the land, air, and sea—and to monitor and enforce international maritime law and rules-based order.
Over the past decade, common themes have emerged, showing that the threat to international rules-based order is felt equally from reemerging concern about state-on-state warfare as well as increasing nontraditional threats.
These threats rarely fall squarely into the naval domain, and this makes it harder to prosecute using traditional maritime methods. Often the perpetrators are not constrained by geographic location, thereby reducing one state’s ability to identify, investigate, and prosecute, as the threat origin and control can be remote from the activity itself.
Active and promising discussions are being held within different regions at maritime conferences, such as the Galle Dialogue. They all highlight the need to form a collaborative approach against nontraditional threats with a cohesive network between national organizations—civilian, constabulary, and military—and regional and international partners. However, there is uncertainty about how to achieve this to maximum effect. In some cases, historical or recent conflicts between states prevent full cooperation, and states belonging to different regional arrangements and agreements are reluctant or unable to share information to an extent that would be beneficial.
Accessibility of the information domain to all partners will be critical to lessening the effects of, and ultimately the elimination of, nontraditional threats. Information control hubs, such as the Fusion Centre of Fiji; information fusion centers of Singapore, India, and Peru; and the recently instituted multinational Indo-Pacific Maritime Coordination Cell, are a frontline method of sharing and reconciling information and a pivotal mechanism for the coordination of agencies for regional and international benefit. While New Zealand is located at the far edge of the Asia-Pacific region, we understand the need to contribute to, and collaborate with, such organizations. If nontraditional threats will not obey land or maritime boundaries, we must also be prepared to operate outside the traditional demarcation of statehood or territories.
We no longer require a call for collaboration. This is well understood. We now need to evolve from single-domain organizations into a multidomain, international, information-based network, assisting each other in prevention and apprehension of perpetrators of nontraditional crimes and security threat activities in the maritime domain.
NORWAY
Rear Admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes, Chief of the Royal Norwegian Navy
Norway has a long-stretched coast, vast oceanographic areas, and significant global commons to govern. Its wealth is based on resources from the maritime domain and the freedom of the seas for transportation. A precondition for sovereignty and sustainable exploitation of resources is respect for established international laws and rules-based order. This precondition is increasingly undermined globally today. It is therefore of utmost importance that the Royal Norwegian Navy (RNoN) continue its efforts enforcing respect for the Law of the Sea and rules-based order, both abroad and at home. The RNoN does this through credible and focused presence and by safeguarding our coastal rights.
Presence matters. If the Law of the Sea is disputed elsewhere, other actors may see this as an opportunity to expand into Norwegian sovereign areas. Therefore, we must be vigilant about what takes place globally. Norway’s defense starts abroad, as we continue efforts to operate with allies through NATO’s standing maritime groups and through bilateral cooperation. For instance, Norway will command both Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) in the first half of 2020, enhancing the RNoN presence abroad and making a substantial contribution to monitoring and enforcing international maritime law and a rules-based order.
The Navy’s dual approach. The RNoN continually conducts maritime operations in home waters through its two main enforcers—the fleet and the Coast Guard, both under the Chief of Navy’s command. The fleet deters through credible presence, making it more profitable for other state actors to follow the Law of the Sea than to dispute it. The Coast Guard mainly safeguards the coastal state’s rights and obligations. The Coast Guard Act regulates its contribution to law and order at sea and the Coast Guard will, in most cases, act on behalf of other authorities, such as the police, when using police authority and prosecutors while investigating crimes.
Joint operations. With vast areas to monitor and a relatively small number of ocean-patrolling vessels, the RNoN maximizes joint and combined cooperation to prioritize presence as the situation dictates. Maritime authorities, civilian aircraft and ships, maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters, and other platforms provide situational awareness in all domains.
The RNoN has an international wake, monitoring and enforcing international maritime law and a rules-based order, while emphasizing presence in the High North monitoring Norway’s areas of interest and safeguarding the Norwegian coastal rights.
PAKISTAN
Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Chief of the Naval Staff, Pakistan Navy
The global environment remains in a state of flux and is characterized by a competition of interests. The recent U.S.-Iran flare-up and ongoing conflicts in Yemen and Syria are creating a precarious situation for shipping in international sea lines of communication (SLOCs). In addition, Indian construction and acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines equipped with long-range nuclear weapons has disturbed the strategic balance in the region. Apart from traditional threats, our maritime security challenges include maritime terrorism, piracy, drug trafficking, and human and arms smuggling, with an ominous mix of hybrid threats.
Our region has geostrategic prominence and political/military significance with global energy highways traversing through it and growing trade opportunities. Pakistan is located at the confluence of vital energy SLOCs, and its trade is largely dependent on sea routes. With the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the deepwater Gwadar Port, our trade activity and energy needs will increase substantially, as will our responsibility to maintain a conducive maritime environment for our ports, sea lanes, and economic zones.
The Pakistan Navy (PN) is a balanced and reckonable force, ready to respond to these diverse challenges. Yet, owing to the magnitude of maritime threats, the PN considers collaborative maritime security vital for ensuring peace and stability in the region. Since 2004, the PN’s continued participation in Combined Maritime Forces amply demonstrates our commitment to regional maritime security and freedom of navigation.
Concurrently, the PN has instituted regional maritime security patrols to fulfill international and national obligations in augmenting maritime security in our area of interest and along critical sea areas. The PN also holds the biennial Aman multinational exercise with the motto “Together for Peace,” a clear manifestation of our resolve to advance peace and order by bringing the navies of the East and West under a common platform for the global good.
To bolster regional maritime security, the Pakistan Navy has established a Joint Maritime Information and Coordination Center that aims to harness efforts of relevant national and international agencies to monitor the maritime region and, where required, initiate a coordinated response to enforce international maritime law. The PN also has raised a Coastal Security and Harbor Defense Force comprising a network of security stations along the entire Pakistani coast equipped with radars, electro-optic sensors, automatic identification systems, and response elements to effectively monitor and generate timely responses.
The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency, duly supported by the Pakistan Navy, is the principal law enforcement agency tasked to enforce national jurisdiction in Pakistan’s maritime zones and coordinate maritime search and rescue in the international maritime organization-designated area of around 800,000 square kilometers.
Cognizant of the evolving strategic environment and maritime challenges, the PN remains poised to play its role in preserving international maritime law within its area of responsibility and on the high seas, and in league with its international and national partners, thus contributing to regional peace and security.
PERU
Admiral Fernando Cerdán Ruiz,
Commander of the Peruvian Navy
The Peruvian Navy, in its role as National Maritime Authority, has expressed to the international community its commitment to the guidelines established in the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. Therefore, Peru accepts and applies its rules as reflected in the convention.
The Maritime Authority mission involves compliance with international maritime conventions in force, and Peru has been a member of the International Maritime Organization since 1968 and subsequently a member of the council of this U.N. agency since 2014. It also exercises its functions in the areas of maritime safety, maritime protection, prevention of marine pollution, and facilitation of transport, which are carried out in compliance with its responsibilities under international maritime law as a flag state, port state, and coastal state.
As a flag state, the National Maritime Authority ensures that national vessels comply with the international standards set out in international conventions, such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, and International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. The latter has been particularly relevant in recent years with regard to air pollution, as it establishes measures for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, which has been fully supported by Peru as part of its policy to reduce the effects of climate change.
As a coastal state, Peru has the responsibilities established in the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention) and in Chapter V of the SOLAS Convention (Safety of Navigation).
The Maritime Authority is responsible for SAR in the maritime area off our coast up to a distance of 3,000 miles, covering an area of 3,580,000 square miles. For this, the Maritime Authority has air and surface units, as well as an integrated Vessel Traffic Monitoring System and a Cospas-Sarsat satellite-aided search-and-rescue ground station.
PORTUGAL
Admiral António Maria Mendes Calado,
Chief of Staff of the Portuguese Navy
In the present global context, the maritime security environment increasingly requires navies to play two distinct roles. First, a traditional one, in which the sea is an instrument to foster, maintain, and dispute political power, sometimes designated as hard security. Second, a less traditional non-military role, which could be termed as “soft security” related to police and coast guard functions.
The Portuguese Navy is permanently engaged in these two frameworks, performing multiple tasks in a very wide and complex spectrum. The field of military tasks includes deterrence, military defense, and support to foreign policy. The field of non-military tasks includes security, safety, and state authority carried out in accordance with international law—namely, international and domestic maritime law embodying a regulated order.
Addressing contemporary risks that pose growing challenges to international maritime law means that the navies must establish priorities consonant with the appropriate legal competences foreseen in national law. To Portugal and to the Portuguese Navy, these priorities may include, under its own leadership or while cooperating with leading agencies at a national or international level, the fight against piracy and drug trafficking, the control of irregular migration, search and rescue, fisheries control, and counterpollution activities.
Occasionally, the good order at sea extends from sea to sea-based interventions that range from assisting distressed communities in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the Portuguese Navy’s support to Mozambique during the 2019 floods caused by Cyclone Idai, to noncombatant evacuation operations in support of allies and friendly countries.
Cooperation, coordination, and multilateral approaches are central attributes of navies’ culture and identity, playing also a decisive role when foreseeing a rules-based order for the maritime commons. Regarding international cooperation, capacity building is the most effective way to restore stability in maritime areas of strategic interest, granting coastal states capabilities to ensure their own maritime security by reinforcing authority and jurisdiction.
In January 2018, a maritime operational-capacity-building mission was launched along with São Tomé and Príncipe aiming to support that country’s coast guard development. Now, after a two-year deployment carried out by a dedicated Portuguese Navy patrol boat and crew, we assess it as a fruitful mission, conducted in the Gulf of Guinea region—an area of increasing global concern.
Portugal also depends on the attributes of the ocean for prosperity and the welfare of the Portuguese people. This is why the Portuguese Navy is so deeply committed to safeguarding maritime security and a rules-based order by addressing different risks and threats, monitoring and enforcing international maritime law in its own maritime domain as well as throughout the maritime commons.
ROMANIA
Vice Admiral Alexandru Mirsu, Commander of the Romanian Naval Forces
The Romanian Naval Forces and the Coast Guard have, throughout history, shared missions to monitor and implement national and international laws within the framework of maritime security. After 1990, the Coast Guard is no longer part of the Romanian Naval Forces, carrying out its activity under Internal Affairs Ministry Flag.
The Romanian border, however, has some peculiarities, as Romania is a state with a maritime border (225 km at the Black Sea) and a river border at the Danube (in total 639 km, of which 169 km is with Ukraine and 470 km with Bulgaria). Also, Romania is the border of NATO and the EU. Taking into account these particularities, the Romanian Navy, together with the Coast Guard, carries out border surveillance and control missions in compliance with the provisions of the treaties, agreements, conventions, and border protocols and of the international ones to which Romania is a party, such as the Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Romanian Navy ensures the nation’s maritime security and maritime interests, independently or, in an allied context, in the EEZ or wherever the commitments demand our presence, to ensure the security of the Romanian citizen. Romania’s maritime interests are numerous and are a consequence of the geostrategic position of the country, and are reflected in the Euro-Atlantic interests, representing Romania’s firm action to respect the safety and well-being of the citizen and to transform this region into a space connected to democratic values and principles.
The risks and threats to maritime security have special characteristics, requiring a permanent and intense effort of conceptual evaluation and adaptation when applied in the field of maritime and river security. The main risks and threats in the Black Sea are illicit trafficking, terrorism, proliferation of NBC weapons, illegal immigration, illegal exploitation or unregulated marine resources, and deliberate destruction and degradation of the marine environment.
I believe that deterring illicit actions through a credible and permanent naval presence is of great value in combating these practices. In maritime terms, the main leverage used will be the credible maritime presence, which includes: systematic combat actions, training levels, improving the combat level, NATO/EU operations, joint actions with the permanent SNMG and SNMCMG groups to increase the level of interoperability, supporting NRF with national elements, and modernization of C4ISR systems. To be fully interoperable in joint actions against risks, all national naval exercises contain sequences in common with both Navy and Coast Guard ships.
To answer the challenges of the Black Sea Security, as well as its geographical and legal limitations, and because of political commitment to allot 2 percent of GDP for national defense, the Romanian Navy develops programs to monitor international maritime law.
SAUDI ARABIA
Vice Admiral Fahad al-Ghofaily, Commander of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia enjoys a distinguished strategic location in the Arabian Peninsula, in the far southwest of Asia. The area of the Kingdom is about two million square kilometers, covering about two-thirds of the Arabian Peninsula, with about a 3,400 km coastline, including along the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. The Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) has the Eastern Fleet on the Arabian Gulf and the Western Fleet on the Red Sea. Each has an integrated military force consisting of combat ships, support units, administrative and technical support, a marine aviation group, and Marine Corps and special forces.
From its inception, the RSNF endeavored to participate in international maritime alliances to promote peace and security in the region. The most prominent challenge in the past few years has been attacks against maritime transport, especially in narrow straits, the easiest place to attack maritime transport and its crews and property. These incidents directly threatened food supplies, energy security, and the environmental security of the seas and shores.
To address this issue, it is necessary to develop a permanent mechanism to monitor and evaluate the security of strategic sea lanes. For example, the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the southern entrance to the Red Sea that links it to the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal, is one of the core routes of oil tankers heading from the Arabian Gulf to Europe. Despite the critical conditions in the region related to the current security situation, especially in the southern Red Sea, maritime trade in the Bab el-Mandeb has continued smoothly because of collective international maritime security efforts.
The RSNF has deployed several modern frigates with high combat capabilities to protect and escort international merchant vessels as they transit the southern Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandab strait to protect them from attacks from the Houthi terrorist militias. The RSNF has spent more than 6,000 hours escorting more than 450 merchant vessels in the region, in addition to 24-hour surveillance, helicopter reconnaissance operations, crisis response, and support for other participating naval forces. The RSNF also has removed more than 115 mines along the Yemeni coast. Furthermore, the RSNF interacts with regional centers for the exchange of information related to piracy, such as the Joint Maritime Coordination Center of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain. The RSNF has thwarted at least five attempted piracy attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the southern Red Sea, in addition to rescuing a French sailor off the yacht L’Etoile 70 miles west of Farasan Island and evacuating 31 people from the burning cargo ship Al Fayrouz off the Saudi coast.
Finally, the RSNF is seeking the latest marine surveillance and reconnaissance systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, balloons, coastal radars, and surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. It will continue to cooperate with the friendly navies in the region and join regional groups that contribute to maritime security, such as countries bordering the Red Sea that participated in the maritime exercise Red Wave 1.
SWEDEN
Rear Admiral Jens Nykvist, Chief of the Royal Swedish Navy
As a nation dependent on trade and free sea lanes of communication, Sweden views international maritime law as fundamental and a key element in a rules-based international order.
Sweden is a small nation from a global point of view, but as a trading nation Swedish interests are global. Therefore, the Navy has been engaged far from home. Since 2009, Sweden has participated in EU Naval Force Operation Atalanta in the Indian Ocean with patrol vessels, corvettes, and Marine units to safeguard the sea lanes and support the U.N. World Food Program in Somalia. In 2006 and 2007, the Swedish Navy was an active part of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon at sea off the Lebanese coast.
But the Swedish Navy’s primary strength is not to deploy forces to areas far from its own shores, but to operate in its own neighborhood—the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic Sea with the historic Straits Skagerrak and Kattegat, and westward into the North Sea. I firmly believe that enduring presence is the key to monitor and enforce any offenses against international maritime law.
Fixed sensors are vital to build and maintain situational awareness, but it must be completed with mobile platforms in the right place at the right time. Therefore, the Swedish Navy has ships at sea at all times, patrolling territorial and international waters. These ships are always ready to act, and the crews are fully professional warfighters; our guard at sea is high.
We also are enhancing cooperation between the Navy and the Coast Guard, not only to share information but to conduct joint operations.
Cooperation with partner nations that share our concerns in these matters also is of great importance. Therefore, Sweden and Finland initiated Sea-surveillance Cooperation Finland and Sweden (SUCFIS). SUCFIS is about classified military information exchange in the Baltic Sea and its approaches. But SUCFIS is not the only initiative in the region. Sea Surveillance Cooperation Baltic Sea (SUCBAS)—comprising nine nations bordering, or located in the vicinity of, the Baltic Sea—and Maritime Surveillance Network (MARSUR) are two additional information exchange initiatives. Cooperation and information exchange support the decision-making process for naval leaders in their respective nations.
The Swedish Navy is well-trained, well-equipped, and has a wide ability to monitor any offenses and enforce the law, in cooperation with our partners. But most important, we are always at sea—where we belong!
UNITED KINGDOM
Admiral Tony Radakin, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff
It is 1609. Henry Hudson is sailing into New York Harbor for the first time. Galileo is demonstrating his new telescope to Venetian lawmakers. And, in the Netherlands, the lawyer Hugo Grotius is publishing a short book entitled Mare Liberum, the Free Sea. More than 400 years later, we are still seeing the repercussions. The U.S. economy is the largest in the world. The latest iterations of Galileo’s telescope are in space, looking at other worlds unimaginable distances away. And Grotius’s basic principle of the High Seas, a global commons where all may move freely, remains enshrined in international law.
Maritime nations have taken Grotius’s ideas, built on them, and negotiated them into what has become the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. This is particularly important to the U.K. as a maritime nation. An accident of geography created an island, with navigable rivers, natural harbors, and plentiful trees suitable for shipbuilding. And so, the U.K. went out into the world by sea, and the sea remains vital to us today.
Maritime nations are more than just nations with a coastline. They are nations that understand the importance of the sea, not just for themselves but in a global context. They are nations that engage with the sea and with others who use it. Maritime nations need to be able to use the sea safely and securely, for themselves, for their allies, and to deter those who would do harm.
But not all nations are using the sea fairly and lawfully. Piracy, unlawful claims of territorial waters, flags of convenience, mineral exploitation—these concern us all. And as technology develops, the impacts of automation, artificial intelligence, climate change, and changing demographics will affect everyone.
If these issues are taking place in a common theater, and if they are collective challenges, then it follows that the only solution is a collaborative one. The Royal Navy is committed to working with its international partners to uphold the rights and responsibilities of those who use the sea and to enforce those rights where necessary.
The legacy of Grotius’s little book has been to create global prosperity, lift millions out of poverty, and allow the rule of law to prevail for hundreds of years. It is our responsibility as maritime nations to work together to ensure the principle of the High Seas endures for another 411 years and beyond.