Press Releases
"ARF Workshop on International Cooperation on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)"
March 7, 2018
- On March 7, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the "ARF Workshop on International Cooperation on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)" as an official event of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
- Officials from ARF members, as well as experts attended this meeting, which was co-chaired by Japan and Malaysia. From the Japanese side, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the National Security Secretariat, Cabinet Secretariat, the National Ocean Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office, and the Japan Coast Guard attended this meeting.
- An overview of this meeting is as follows.
- Participants had discussions on such topics as “Current Maritime Related Situation and MDA,” “MDA as a means to Address Various Maritime Challenges,” and “International Cooperation on MDA,” while having presentations by the participants.
- Based on the belief that it is important to ensure the peace and prosperity in the entire region through making Indo-Pacific a free and open global commons based on the rule of law, Japan stated that it has paid a strong attention to capacity building assistance towards ASEAN member states in such areas as maritime law enforcement, maritime safety, natural disaster risk reduction, including enhancement of MDA capabilities, while introducing the efforts related to MDA.
- Through active discussions at each session, experiences and lessons learned from countries or regional frameworks on MDA were shared among ARF members who face various maritime challenges including piracy and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing. In addition, the participants deepened their understanding on international cooperation on MDA through exchange of views on the needs of ARF members for enhanced MDA capabilities.