Asian shipping nations urge unity against terror attacks
Asian shipping nations urge unity against terror attacks
Reuters, Manila
Twenty-one nations with Pacific Ocean ports worked on ways to boost security against militants, pirates and smugglers on Monday, but some delegates warned that governments and the shipping industry still had much to do.
A two-day meeting in Manila of members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has brought together countries heavily dependent on shipping and at risk of economic damage from a maritime terror attack.
"Terrorism is one of the most destructive threats to APEC's goals of free trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region," Makarim Wibisono, the Indonesian chairman of the grouping's counter-terrorism task force, told the conference.
He said tighter security measures may raise the cost of goods and slow the flow of people but the alternatives were worse.
"Failure to act on this will put APEC economies at great risk," he said.
The attacks on the United States in September 2001 using hijacked commercial airliners jolted many nations into stepping up security across the transportation spectrum.
A series of maritime measures -- many of them new to a sector focused on piracy at sea and theft at ports -- are due to take effect in July 2004.
"While it is true that much has already been accomplished, much has yet to be done," Philippine Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza said. "The task ahead is of great magnitude and entails great cost. We cannot afford to lose."
Maritime security holds particular challenges for nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines, which lie on some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and have to patrol the coastlines of thousands of islands.
Security analysts warn that, beyond the smuggling of weapons by militants, ships could be used to deliver a payload of explosives or radioactive material into a busy port.
But the threat of piracy has not faded.
The International Maritime Bureau, an ocean crime watchdog, said in July that violent acts of piracy on the high seas hit a record 234 in the first six months of this year -- a jump of 37 percent from the corresponding period of 2002.
Indonesian waters were rated as the most dangerous.
"Since terrorism may be related to piracy, sporadic attacks may be used to feed terrorist activities," Rear Admiral Efthimios Mitropoulos, the incoming director of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), told the conference.
Two years ago, the IMO set out requirements that included security assessments, plans and officers for ships -- all without stepping on sovereignty rights and impeding the flow of trade.
Singapore, one of the world's busiest container ports, said in a paper that preparation, training and information-sharing were key to give the new measures teeth by next year.
"This is to avoid the possibility that there may be some who succumb to taking short cuts and compromise security in order to meet the deadline," it said.