I hope that President-elect Obama will, as one of his first foreign policy actions, call a meeting of the world's major maritime nations to develop plans to stop the scourge of piracy on the high seas. The pirates are obviously getting bolder, and they're expanding their areas of operation from near-coastal areas in the Gulf of Aden, the coast of West Africa (especially near Nigeria) and the Straits of Malacca, into new areas. Although there have been limited efforts to combat this piracy, they obviously haven't been nearly sufficient
Just today, there was a report that a Saudi-owned, Liberian-flag supertanker was captured by Somali pirates 450 miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. The 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
In other recent incidents, the 20,000-ton Chemstar Venus, with five South Koreans and 18 Filipino crewmen, was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a South Korean cargo ship and 22 sailors on September 10, and many others. According to data from the International Maritime Bureau, at least 83 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January, of which 33 were successfully hijacked. At least 12 vessels and over 200 crew were still in the hands of pirates.
This is an effort in which every nation in the world has a common interest, because we all depend upon maritime commerce. I can think of no better way to begin this new administration than to have our Navy spearhead a major international effort by the world's navies, including those of otherwise hostile (or at least not friendly) countries to combat this scourge. Cooperative efforts by navies such as those of the U.S., other NATO countries, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, India and Pakistan might well lay the groundwork for greater cooperation in other areas.