With an objective to strengthen international cooperation and regional partnership to combat maritime piracy, Indian Coast Guard is organising the 15th edition of ‘Capacity Building Senior Officers’ Meeting’ (CBSOM-2023) with the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) from 11-15 December 2023 at GIFT city, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Director General Rakesh Pal, PTM, TM, the Director General Indian Coast Guard, being the designated Indian Governor to ReCAAP inaugurated the four day meeting is being participated by international and national subject matter experts speakers.
ReCAAP is the first and only regional government-to-government agreement to promote and enhance cooperation to suppress piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia. India became the 10th country to ratify the ReCAAP agreement enabling the Agreement to enter into force on September 04 2006. Now there are 21 countries contracting party to the ReCAAP agreement. Govt of India has assigned responsibility of ReCAAP Focal Point to the Indian Coast Guard for sharing of information on Piracy to member countries and ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre, Singapore.
Earlier also, Indian Coast Guard has successfully co-hosted Capacity Building workshops in India with ReCAAP ISC in 2011, 2017 and 2019. The objectivity of this meeting is to understand updated situation of maritime piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia, exchange each others’ experiences and evolve best practices to tackle such incidents with a collaborative approach from all the contracting parties.
A total of 19 International delegates from 15 countries are participating in the meeting. In addition, senior officials from the national stakeholders such as Indian Navy, major ports, State Maritime Boards, Directorate General of Shipping including other maritime organisations are also participating in this meeting.
