Khanh Hoa (VNA) – Sharing information and cooperating to improvecapacity building will practically enable marine law enforcement forces toaccomplish their duties and look towards enhanced cooperation, participantssaid at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Workshop on Enhancing Regional MaritimeLaw Enforcement Cooperation.

Theworkshop was organised in the central province of Khanh Hoa on January 18-19 bythe Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, Australia and the European Union.

Theevent, the first to realise ARF Foreign Ministers’ Declaration on enhancingmaritime law enforcement cooperation issued in Vientiane, Laos, in 2016, drew 80officials, experts and scholars on maritime security from 22 countries andinternational organisations.

Inhis opening remarks, Vietnam’s Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung saidthat maritime law enforcement cooperation in the region is part of efforts toensure maritime security and safety, especially at ASEAN-led mechanisms such asARF, ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus, East Asia Summit, and the ExpandedASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF).

However,there remain several difficulties, including different institutions on law enforcement at sea of countries, and existing maritime andterritorial disputes in the region.

The prerequisite for good cooperation is the trust amongparties involved which is built on measures put forward at such forums as ARF,Dung affirmed.

With this spirit, participating delegates exchangedviews to clarify the maritime security picture in the region.

They agreed that maritime security at sea is acomplicated and multi-layered matter. Therefore, maintaining peace, securityand stability at sea need cooperation in maritime law enforcement.

Theystressed the need to have measures to deter and prevent criminals as well asincreasing public awareness of existing challenges, and to intensifycoordination between involved agencies, governments and people to protect themarine environment and deal with illegal fishing, and trans-national crimes.

Concludingthe workshop, Vietnam, Australia and the EU reached a consensus on maintainingdialogue on maritime law enforcement cooperation and considering the field apriority in the Hanoi Action Plan on the implementation of the ARF Visionduring the 2018-2020 tenure.

ARFwas established in 1994, aiming to build trust and enhance dialogue in theregion with ASEAN being the centre. The forum is participated by 27 nations andinternational organisations.- VNA