G7 Friends of the Gulf of Guinea Group (G7++FOGG) Accra 3-4 December 2014 Opening remarks by the French chairmanship of the Group (Ambassador Véronique Roger-Lacan, French Special Representative for the fight against maritime piracy)
Honorable Minister, Madam Hannah Tetteh, Excellency, the Special Representative of the UNSG for West Africa, Sir Chambas, Excellencies, Officers, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honor for us all Honorable Minister, to have been able to listen to your opening speech of this second meeting in 2014, of the G7 Friends of the Gulf of Guinea Group.
The issue of maritime security has been on the agenda of the G8/G7 since 2011 under the French Presidency of the G7. In 2013, the UK Presidency of the G8 proposed to create the G8++FOGG. The G8++FOGG met twice in 2013. In 2014, the Russian presidency of the G8 had asked France to organize the work for its presidency, which we did, for a Franco- Russian presidency of the G8++FOGG. Unfortunately, events in Ukraine turned out, and eventually, the G8 turned into the G7. G7 Member States asked France to carry on the job which had been started with the Russians, which France accepted happily. We organized a first meeting in Yaoundé on 10 th September 2014, in the margins of the inauguration of the Inter-regional coordination center (ICC) for maritime security and safety that the Gulf of Guinea Heads of State and Government had called for at their summit in Yaoundé on 25 June 2013.
And, now, Honorable Minister, we are glad to be able, thanks to the support of your country and your authorities, to organize the second 2014 G7++FOGG meeting in Accra today. After having organized the first meeting in an ECCAS Francophone country, it was important for us France, to organize this meeting in an ECOWAS Anglophone country. Because the Gulf of Guinea has to be a single maritime space, with no borders, neither maritime, nor linguistic, nor cultural.
Honorable Minister, you may now that G7++FOGG participants are – on the G7 side - Germany, Canada, the United States, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and France, on the non-G7 side - Belgium, Brazil (observer), South Korea, Denmark, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland and also the European Union, UNODC and INTERPOL. Each time, we first meet among ourselves, strategic partners of the Gulf of Guinea region, to review our joint strategy to support the efforts undertaken by the region to ensure maritime security and safety in the Gulf of Guinea, then we meet with our colleagues of ECCAS, ECOWAS, and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC), to cross-check our respective assessments.
This time, something special is happening. For the first time ever, the G7++FOGG and its partners ECCAS, ECOWAS, have organized to meet with representatives of the shipping and oil and gas industry. Because those companies have some concern about the freedom of navigation and of trade in the Gulf of Guinea waters. And it is our duty, for the sake of development in countries and for the populations of the region, to ensure that appropriate resources and taxation flow in so that public health, education, employment, are offered equitably to everyone in the region. Therefore, we must fight together with the private sector, against any maritime crime.
As a matter of fact, in 2013, the number of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea grew to 169, compared to 56 in 2010, and in 2014, until September, 70 attacks had been recorded. If the number seems to have decreased, the violence has increased, with hijackings and hostage takings increasing. In general, the attacks take place in Nigerian territorial waters. If the situation remains the same, it will add to instability in West Africa which is also fueled by constant terrorist threat in the Sahel as well as illegal drug, human and medicine trafficking in the area.
In compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions 2018 (2011) and 2039 (2012), in 2013 Gulf of Guinea Heads of State and Government met in Yaoundé at a Summit on Maritime Safety and Security in the Gulf of Guinea. They decided that ECCAS, ECOWAS and the GGC would ensure that no more such threat would derail maritime security and safety in the area. As far as the strategic partners of the region are concerned, they also are called to comply with those resolutions, by supporting their partners in the Gulf of Guinea, in their endeavor to struggle against maritime crime in the region.
Hence, Honorable Minister, our aim for the next two days, will be to mobilize the G7++FOGG, ECCAS, ECOWAS and the GGC, as well as oil and gas and shipping industries, in favor of the implementation of the Yaoundé summit texts. ECCAS, ECOWAS and GGC chief executives have already inaugurated the ICC in Yaoundé on 11 th September. We need to do more .
First , we need to make sure that the maritime regional coordination centers (MRCC) are duly functioning. The ECCAS one, the CRESMAC, has just been inaugurated in Pointe Noire (Congo). For West Africa, ECOWAS has yet to appoint the country that will host the CRESMAO. Second , we need to make sure that the ICC is appropriately equipped to coordinate the work among those two MRCCs. Third, multinational maritime coordination centers (MMCC) in zones A (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo), E (Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Niger), F (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso), and G (Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Mali), have also to be established. Only one is operating now, the one in Douala (Cameroun), for zone D (Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tomé and Principe). Fourth, each of the countries of those zones need to have national maritime coordination centers.
At the same time, and while all the above has to be organized so that a full fledge maritime security and safety architecture is established, one has to fight against the impunity of maritime criminals. This is the reason why police and judicial cooperation has to be promoted in the region, so as to create a single criminal space in West and Central Africa. Maritime criminals have no borders. The well-being of seafarers, and the well-being of populations in the region are at stake. INTERPOL is with us today to look at this issue.
Honorable Minister, we have a lot of challenges ahead of us. It is reassuring to hear that you will support us in this endeavor. Because the issue is not technical, it is not naval, it is not maritime, it is not judicial, it is not criminal. It is political . It is a matter for our politicians to fight against. And you are a gifted and famous politician. Many thanks for your support.