2004 Speeches
Maritime Cooperation in Safety and Security: AMVER Awards Ceremony
September 22, 2004
Thank you Teh Kong Leong for your kind introduction. It’s great to be here today among so many esteemed maritime professionals. I would like to thank Captain Michael L. Blair, the Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Far East Activities, for coming from Japan to join us. And on behalf of the United States Government, I would like to express my special thanks and appreciation to our award recipients for their many years of volunteer service in the AMVER program.
AMVER, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue system, offers an excellent example of what I want to talk to you about today: the interconnectedness of maritime safety and maritime security, and our efforts to improve security on the high seas through international, cooperative methods similar to those applied by AMVER in promoting safety on the high seas.
AMVER has a dramatic history, one that draws inspiration from the tragic sinking of the Titanic in 1912. One positive outcome of that terrible calamity was the realization that international cooperation can save lives. To facilitate this cooperation, what was needed was a ship reporting system that search and rescue coordinators could use to identify vessels in the area of a maritime or aviation emergency that could be diverted to render assistance. With the advent of computer-based technology, that realization became reality with the inception of AMVER in 1958. Today, AMVER is the only worldwide network safeguarding ships, crew and passengers. How important is AMVER? You might ask the 143 individuals who, in 2003, were brought aboard AMVER ships after having survived a collision, fire or sinking at sea; or you might ask the 2,500 individuals who have been rescued since 1990.
Today, some 12,000 ships from over 140 nations participate in AMVER, offering coverage of millions of square miles of ocean that no one nation could ever accomplish on its own. The program’s success is directly related to you gathered here today, and to the extraordinary and effective cooperation of ships, companies, search and rescue teams, communications service providers, and governments in supporting this highly successful international maritime humanitarian program.
AMVER has made seafarers safer on the water for more than 45 years. Safer, yes, but the reality is that the world has changed dramatically since AMVER’s creation. We all recognize that certain hazards to ships, crew, and cargo are inevitable. But these days, even larger threats loom on the horizon in terms of acts of piracy and terrorism, threats that challenge the premise of AMVER’s “mariner helping mariner” ethos, not to mention the notion that maritime safety can more or less facilitate the unimpeded movement of people, goods and money. These threats mean that we must ensure that maritime security goes hand-in-hand with maritime safety. In many respects, the spirit and logic of AMVER has shown us the way: like maritime safety, maritime security requires a coordinated and cooperative international approach in order to be effective.
When it comes to enhancing maritime security, the U.S. Government’s goal is to develop a partnership of willing nations, in accordance with existing international law and national sovereignty considerations, to identify, monitor, and intercept transnational maritime threats. In other words, we need to work together to identify threats to maritime security, share that information, and allow the nation or nations directly involved to use that shared information to take appropriate action against those threats within the boundaries of their territorial waters.
This undertaking requires us to harness both available and emerging technologies to develop our maritime situational awareness. It also requires nimble decision-making architectures and appropriate threat responses based on agency-, ministerial-, and international levels of cooperation and information-sharing.
The United States is undertaking a series of initiatives intended to improve maritime security. Each of these initiatives is intended to address different aspects of the overall challenge of preventing criminals from using the seas to move arms, WMD-related material and delivery systems, and/or to carry out destructive attacks. These initiatives include the Container Security Initiative, the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Operation Safe Commerce, the U.S. Coast Guard’s International Port Security Program, and the Megaports radiation detection initiative. All of these programs are based on shared objectives, but address different concerns. Complementing these efforts are broader undertakings like the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, which calls on all states to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.
Piracy and terrorism pose threats to maritime security that can undermine all our efforts to promote safety at sea and the free flow of commerce. As maritime crime increases, maritime safety declines. The Malacca Strait, for example, is now home to more incidents of piracy than any other place in the world. Unsecured seas and coastlines represent potential safe havens for criminals or terrorists, providing them freedom to threaten vessels like your own. In the first six months of 2004, the number of piracy attacks in the Malacca and Singapore straits more than tripled from 15 to 47— a 14-year high – and became more violent and sophisticated as well. Over a 12-day period in June, for example, the International Maritime Bureau reported eight serious acts of piracy in the northern Malacca Strait alone.
Pirates come armed with automatic machine guns and hand grenades, and in some cases have kidnapped senior crew for ransom before repainting the vessel at sea and sailing into port under a new, “phantom” identity. If pirates can do this, so can terrorists. Terrorists can potentially use ships, particularly those with dangerous cargo, as both a weapon and a delivery system.
Maritime terrorism has reared its sinister head all too frequently in recent history. In 2000, Islamic militants in Yemen blew a crippling hole in an American warship, the USS Cole, and another in a French oil tanker in 2002, the Limburg. Terrorists from the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf organization bombed a ferry in Manila Bay earlier this year, causing the loss of more than 100 lives.
Fueling concerns about security in the Malacca Strait is the reality that Southeast Asia has become an important area of operations for the al-Qaeda-linked terror group, Jemaah Islamiah. JI leaders and members have been arrested in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand, but the threat remains. There are indications that these terrorist networks are shifting their focus to "soft targets," those that are less protected and damage to which could have important economic or psychological impacts. Commercial shipping would be one such target.
We can all imagine very disturbing worst-case scenarios in the Malacca Straits or elsewhere. The intentional sinking of a large vessel in the Strait of Singapore, particularly the Philip Channel, for example, would seriously impede vessel traffic and deliver a harsh body blow to a key and vital component of Singapore’s economic livelihood—its comparative advantage in moving goods quickly and efficiently.
Secure waterways are pivotal to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. The seas, and the resources that flow through them, must be both shared and protected. The recent agreement between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore to launch coordinated naval patrols represents a step forward in combating the persistent problem of piracy in the Malacca and Singapore Straits. We are also pleased that the United States will work closely with the nations of Southeast Asia to host a meeting in Kuala Lumpur later this month to enhance international cooperation to better identify and address threats to maritime security. But we can’t stop there.
The U.S. Government has been working with our partners and allies to aggressively mobilize international efforts to fight terrorism in every corner of the globe. Just as our Coast Guard relies on your support to make the AMVER program a success, the international community needs the cooperation of the shipping industry to win the war on terrorism. Industry and government share a common interest in stopping terrorism, and must work together to develop effective programs and initiatives to achieve our objectives for a safer world. This is particularly true in the case of maritime security, where we will need to work closely with the shipping industry to ensure that our actions support - rather than inhibit - legitimate shipping.
We should take AMVER’s example as a highly successful, cooperative volunteer program and implement its tried, true, and effective format to enhance maritime security.
I hope that, as you have supported the AMVER program to enhance maritime safety, you will likewise support integral and complementary efforts to enhance maritime security and to keep the people, goods and money that all our economies depend on flowing.
The world is so unlike that which witnessed AMVER’s inception. The mission of AMVER, however, has remained unchanged: simply put, to ensure the safety of life at sea. It is a tradition as old as history. It transcends politics, faith and culture. It is truly a noble spirit and we value the embrace of that spirit embodied by each ship and company we honor today.
Thank you.
(Followed by Q&A)