RAVENNA, Italy—
Cremonini said they do not intend to be the “NATO of the seas,” but rather provide more value in securing the oceans and seas from transnational maritime threats. What the EU envisions is to be a “global maritime security actor” that addresses modern-day threats to maritime security including threat to freedom of navigation.
EUNAVFOR MED IRINI, meanwhile, was mandated in 2020 to implement the United Nations arms embargo on Libya with the use of its aerial, satellite and maritime assets. It conducts inspections of vessels on the high seas off the Libyan coast that are suspected to be carrying arms or related materials to and from Libya. It also monitors illicit exports from Libya of petroleum, crude oil and refined petroleum.
In 2021, the CMP was piloted in the Gulf of Guinea. Around 95 percent of worldwide kidnapping for ransom at sea in 2020 occurred in the Gulf of Guinea. In February, the EC declared the North-Western Indian Ocean as another “maritime area of interest.” It will cover the Strait of Hormuz to the southern tropic to the North of the Red Sea towards the center of Indian Ocean.