EU wants help with Somali pirates from Australia

According to Joe Borg, the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the rapid spread of piracy eastwards from Africa may soon affect Australian interests and Australia may need to join forces with the European Union to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean if Somali pirates continue to expand their area of attacks.

"We are interested to work more closely with Australia in order to fight international piracy, particularly if these piracy activities continue to extend further eastwards," he said. "As these instances of piracy come close towards you (Australia), it becomes more urgent to take action." Dr Borg, who is visiting Australia, stopped short of requesting Australian naval assistance for the fight against piracy, saying such matters were for the Australian Government.

The EU has an anti-piracy naval taskforce patrolling the African coast. Defence said early this year it was considering sending a warship to join anti-piracy forces off the coast of Somalia, but yesterday said no decision had been made.

"Any ADF support for anti-piracy efforts needs to be balanced against current operational pressures and our regional responsibilities," a Defence spokesman said. "Should government decide to make an anti-piracy contribution, we would be likely to operate as part of the US-led Combined Task Force, which works closely with the European Union-led anti-piracy effort, Operation Atalanta."

The EU has a taskforce from eight countries with six warships and three surveillance aircraft patrolling one million square kilometres of the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.Dr Borg discussed closer co-ordination between Australia and the EU on piracy during a meeting this week with Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus. He said the EU taskforce was succeeding in reducing attacks in its patrol zone, but pirates were moving further south and east to evade the naval vessels. "The pirates are extending their operations south and the states of the EU need to see if there is scope to extend the EU operations to cover these new areas of attacks," Dr Borg said.

The concerted international effort to combat piracy includes a dozen warships from the US 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, as well as warships from India, Russia, Malaysia and several other nations.

Source: Ecoterra, may, 18, 2009

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