Toledo, July 7, 2023 – The Operation Commander (OPCDR) of EU NAVFOR ATALANTA, Vice Admiral Núñez Torrente, has participated at the EU Defence Policy Directors (DPD) meeting, held this Friday in Toledo within the framework of the events organised under the Spanish Presidency of the European Council.
During the meeting, organised around three working sessions, the OPCDR had the opportunity to share with the main authorities on Policy of Defence of the UE his insight on the main challenges to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa and the North-western Indian Ocean and the EU’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners from the standpoint of almost 15 years of presence of Atalanta in the area.
The intervention of the Deputy Secretary General for Common Security and Defense Policy and Crisis Response of the European External Action Service, Charles Fries, gave way to a round table where the DPDs were invited to discuss the EU’s efforts in support of maritime security, including through our maritime CSDP operations, the Coordinated Maritime Presences, and the updated EU Maritime Security Strategy.
The OPCDR highlighted the importance of Maritime Security to the European Union and to its Member States in the current geostrategic scenario, aggravated by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, where 80% of global trade is seaborne and about two-thirds of the world’s oil and gas supply is either extracted at sea or transported by sea.
In this context, under the CSDP framework, Operation Atalanta has been operating in the Western Indian Ocean since 2008. Given its successful record of accomplishment, Atalanta has seen its mandate expanded from the fight against piracy into a broader Maritime Security operation and it is further strengthening links and synergies with EMASOH.
The OPCDR reviewed Atalanta’s commitment to tackle the challenges on Maritime Security, providing a detailed description of the efforts combating piracy; the changes in the shape and modalities of threats, conditioned by the geostrategic tensions in the area; the extension of Atalanta’s Area of Operations from the Western Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, from the Suez Canal to the Mozambique Channel; or the performance in the tasks called to turn Atalanta into a comprehensive Maritime Security Provider: fight against drug trafficking, engagement against IUU Fishing or contribution to the construction of a regional Maritime Security Architecture.
The OPCDR identified as tools to pursuit Atalanta’s ambitious objectives the networks of relations established in the area with main actors and stakeholders, such as the Indian Ocean Maritime Security Centres, the privileged relations with nearly all the countries in the Area of Operations, the fruitful interaction with the new concept of the Coordinated Maritime Presences or the excellent relations with other Indo-Pacific Partners.
The meeting was complemented with additional working sessions on “EU support to Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression” and the “Strategic Compass: EU Rapid Deployment Capacity: state of play and way ahead”.