Japan's efforts to combat piracy and armed robbery against ships

November 2001
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan

New Proposal of Japan

Japan proposes to convene working group of government officials in order to ensure efficient cooperation to combat piracy and armed robbery against ships, including exploring possible regional cooperation agreement.

BACKGROUND

1. Conference on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships (April 2000)

The Japanese Government hosted the "Regional Conference on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships" with the participation of the Heads of Coast Guard Agencies and the Director-Generals of maritime policy authorities of 16 States and areas (ASEAN, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Republic of Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Japan) in April 2000.

At the conference, the participating countries agreed to strengthen regional cooperation in order to tackle piracy and armed robbery against ships, which are becoming more brutal and organized. The Conference adopted following documents.

• "Asia Anti-Piracy Challenges 2000"
• "Model Action Plan"
• "Tokyo Appeal"

2. Mission for Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships (September 2000)

The Japanese Government dispatched the "Mission for Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships" to the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in September 2000, in order to consult with the coast countries about more specific measures of assistance and cooperation.

3. Asia Cooperation Conference on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ship (October 2001)

The Japanese Government hosted the "Asia Cooperation Conference on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships" in Tokyo on 4-5 October 2001 in order to discuss medium- and long-term vision concerning regional cooperation framework.

The Participants shared the view that in light of the current situation where the number of the piratical cases were still increasing despite the various efforts made by countries and organizations concerned, it was necessary to explore a new approach in order to solve the piratical problems and to consider developing a regional cooperation agreement for the more effective implementation of counter measures against piracy and armed robbery against ships. The participants also shared the view that modality of such an agreement should be subject to further discussion and that experts working group to develop the agreement should be convened at an appropriate time among the countries and international organizations represented in the Conference.

The participants shared the view that outcome of this Conference should be reported to the ASEAN+3 Summit Meeting, since this Conference had been proposed at the last year's ASEAN+3 Summit Meeting.

4. Specific measures of cooperation and support

(1) The Japan Coast Guard sent a patrol vessel to the following countries and conducted combined exercises and exchanged views with them.

(2) The Japan Coast Guard Academy accepted students from 5 countries (Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam) from April 2001.

(3) JICA hosted the "Maritime Law enforcement Seminar", in cooperation with the Japan Coast Guard (October 2001, in Kitakyushu, Japan).

(4) MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) cooperate with expert members of ASEAN countries, such as Indonesia, IMB etc., to reinforce effective self-protection measures on ships.

(5) MLIT established international emergency information network and urged reports by ships to the relevant authority, through making the list of emergency contact point of coastal/port authorities and disbursing it to ASEAN countries etc.

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