UN to vote on Somali piracy resolution

A draft U.N. resolution finalized on Friday would allow foreign ships to enter Somali waters to capture and prevent acts of piracy and armed robbery. ADVERTISEMENT

Piracy is rampant along Somalia’s 1,880-mile coast, which is the longest in Africa and near key shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. The seas around Somalia have seen more than a dozen pirate attacks this year alone. On Wednesday, two ships were attacked in the Gulf of Aden.

The draft resolution, which the Security Council expects to vote on Monday, is in part a response to requests from both Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Somali government for international help in combatting the problem.

Rice Rebukes Russia Over Activities in Disputed Arctic Waters

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Russia’s activities on the resource-rich Arctic shelf as “not helpful” and called for international laws governing the disputed waters to be obeyed.

Rice made the comments today at the Hofdi House in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik — where President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev famously met in October 1986 to discuss arms control.

A Russian mini-submarine planted a flag under the polar cap in August, a move Danish Science Minister Helge Sander at the time called a “joke.” Russia contends the underwater Lomonosov Ridge links Siberia to the Arctic seabed, evidence of which may allow the country to extend its territory under international law. Russia’s government predicts the area may hold 10 billion tons of oil equivalent, as well as gold, nickel and diamonds.

“I think we have to be concerned not just about the resources but about the resurgence of some activity that the Russians have been” carrying out, Rice said alongside Icelandic Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir. “We’re quite aware of it. We speak to the Russians.”

Under the United Nations Law of the Sea convention, the countries on the Arctic Ocean have rights to economic zones within 200 miles (320 kilometers) of their shores. The UN will accept scientific data until 2014 and then decide on ownership of the parts of the Arctic claimed by Russia, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Denmark, through its semi-autonomous territory of Greenland.

Russian sub rescue team couples with Norwegian sub in unprecedented rescue drill

A Russian rescue system coupled with a NATO submarine for the first time on Wednesday in a joint exercise off Norway in an unprecedented act of cooperation for Russia, Reuters reported.

“We had a very important event today because for the first time ever we have the Russian rescue system, the AS-34, mate with a NATO submarine,” exercise spokeswoman British Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Susan Lloyd said by telephone from Norway, the agency reported.

“It was very successful – the Russian rescue system opened the hatch on the Norwegian submarine, the Uthaug, and conducted the first ever transfer between a Russian escape system and a foreign submarine.”

The submarine rescue-and-escape exercise “Bold Monarch ’08″ is taking place in the north of the Skagerrak, a strait running from Norway along the southwest coast of Sweden and Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula.

No U.S. plans to sell ageing warship to India: Gates

The United States has no plans to sell an ageing aircraft carrier to India, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday.

After addressing a high-level regional security forum, Gates was asked about rumours that the USS Kitty Hawk would be sold to India.

“I am aware of no such plans,” Gates replied at the Shangri-La Dialogue forum of regional analysts, defence and security officials.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 and is filed under Environment, Foreign Policy, Maritime Strategy News, NATO, Navy, Norway, Piracy, Russia, Somalia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.