The event brought together high-level stakeholders from the civilian shipping industry and NATO to exchange information and further develop a mutual understanding of the challenges and threats.
Understanding each other's operational challenges is imperative in today's rapidly changing maritime environment
"Understanding each other's operational challenges is imperative in today's rapidly changing maritime environment," Director, NSC, Capt. N. Markussen said. "Bringing stakeholders together allows us to purposefully collaborate to support security at sea within the NATO area of responsibility. The current situation in the Black Sea has our highest attention and we are closely monitoring for potential impacts to military and shipping operations."
Civilian event participants included representatives from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Maritime Bureau (IMB), International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Maersk, International Association of Dry Cargo Ship Owners (Intercargo), Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). This year's event also included an academic perspective presentation from Teesside University in the UK.
NSC continues to execute NATO's Shipping Industry Engagement Plan (SIEP). This includes attending key shipping industry events throughout the year, publishing articles detailing NATO maritime activities on the NSC website (https://shipping.nato.int/nsc), and distributing threat assessments.
In tandem to NSC, MARCOM also leads Operation Sea Guardian (OSG). OSG is a non-Article 5 maritime security operation conducted by NATO in the Mediterranean Sea and Strait of Gibraltar and approaches (outside the territorial waters of regional nations). An evolution of the counter-terrorism-focused Operation Active Endeavour, OSG seeks to build maritime situational awareness, support regional maritime capacity building and counter terrorism, and is ready to respond to a broad spectrum of maritime security threats.
