Russia, NATO Discussed Anti-Piracy Issues

01.11.2011 The NATO-Russia Council held an anti-piracy seminar in new building of Central Naval Museum in St. Petersburg. The main issue on the agenda was countering Somali piracy which is the primary threat of present-day shipping. The military are sure such meetings would improve relations between the Alliance and Russia.

NATO's military delegation headed by Rear Admiral Hank Ort, MC Northwood's Chief of Staff arrived in St. Petersburg within the framework of the NATO-Russia Council convening in Moscow. Director of Central Naval Museum Andrei Lyalin met the guests and proposed to take memorable photo in the museum's hall on background of Russian and NATO members' national flags. Russian party represented by Navy Main HQ, Kuznetsov Naval Academy, and Northern Fleet HQ told about security activities taken by civil crews, actions of Russian marine units, and offered to develop anti-piracy cooperation between Russia and NATO. During the seminar, the partners outlined tactical episodes of joint actions between Russian Navy and NATO Maritime Component.

The military paid particular attention to counteracting of Somali pirates' raids in the Gulf of Aden. The most dangerous are mid fall and mid spring when pirates are most active – over 20 attacks in a month. Despite the might of warships, pirates are quite difficult to be punished – it's the weakness of maritime legislation in anti-piracy matters. Captured pirates must be handed over to Hague Court, but normally they are just let free. The ground for arrest is fire arms or other attack means which in most cases are thrown overboard. Unarmed people are classified as sufferers and must be rescued. According to the military, such seminars help professionals to find much to talk about. To share ideas and thoughts, they use the language familiar to military all across the globe.