UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for a comprehensive regional strategy to counter the growing menace of piracy in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea that threatens the economic well-being of several countries in that area.
"Eradication of piracy in a region the size of the Gulf of Guinea cannot be accomplished without a cooperative and collaborative approach, involving the countries of the region and international partners," Raza Bashir Tarar, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, told the UN Security Council on Monday.
"Also worrisome are indications of links between piracy and other forms of organized crimes like oil bunkering and drug trafficking," he said in a debate on Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. "If left unchecked, these organized crimes can further undermine governance and economic development in the affected countries.
The climate of insecurity would discourage investments particularly in the offshore oil sector." The States of the region, Tarar noted, had taken several initiatives, but others in the region simply lacked the capacity and financial resources to do so.
Eradication of piracy in a region the size of the Guinea Gulf could not be accomplished, therefore, without a collaborative approach, involving also international partners, the Pakistan envoy said. Such an approach required: strengthening the legal framework at national and regional levels for criminalizing piracy; establishing collective systems for surveillance, information-sharing and joint patrolling; addressing links between piracy and other forms of organized crime; and addressing the underlying causes.
"In view of the experience with fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia, he underlined the importance of urgently countering the phenomenon in the Gulf to prevent the situation from getting out of hand", the Pakistan envoy said.
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