- Rear Admiral Saif Al Rahbi and Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva renewed the cooperation protocol between the Maritime Security Centre and the Operation ATALANTA to coordinate incident response
On 6 July, the Protocol for Coordination and Cooperation between the Centre and EUNAVFOR Operation ATALANTA was renewed by both parties.
The protocol was signed by Rear Admiral Bahri Saif bin Nasser Al Rahbi, Commander of the Royal Navy of Oman and Chairman of the Maritime Security Committee, and Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva, Commander of Operation ATALANTA.
The protocol facilitates the exchange of information on vessel movement, maritime activities, and potential threats. It is the basis for a shared understanding of the maritime situation between partners.
It also supports the exchange of experience and best practices of maritime security, such as control procedures, incident management, capacity development, and joint operations planning. It is the basis for the implementation of joint exercises, which are usually preceded by Command and Control Centres (CPX) exercises to test communication channels and information-sharing mechanisms before moving on to real naval training.
ATALANTA and Oman maintain a long and very trustful cooperation in maritime security. Beside the close relationship with Oman’s Maritime Security Centre, ATALANTA conducts regular exercises with the Royal Omani Navy as well as port calls in both Muscat and Salalah, as they are very significant logistics ports for the Operation.
