Hanoi (VNA) – The third ASEAN RegionalForum (ARF) workshop on enhancing cooperation in maritime law enforcement wasjointly held on March 16 and 17 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the EuropeanCommission.

The event, held in both in-person and onlineforms, was attended by officials, researchers, and experts on security andmaritime law enforcement from ARF members and regional and internationalorganisations.

At the opening session, Director of the VietnameseForeign Ministry’s ASEAN Department Vu Ho, who co-chaired the workshop,emphasised that seas and oceans are important to all countries, which sharecommon interests in ensuring peace, security, safety, and cleanness for all seaareas.

To this end, countries should continuecooperation, including among their maritime law enforcement forces, he noted.

Participants pointed out that apart fromincreased activities by maritime law enforcement forces, risks of collision andincidents have also been on the rise correspondingly.

Although international law, including the 1982UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), has certain articles allowing theuse of force during the performance of duties, delegates stressed that this isjust the last resort.

Besides, they added, the use of force mustcomply with common principles and processes and, particularly, avoidjeopardising lives and be only conducted in the waters within nationaljurisdiction.

Delegates discussed many cooperation models formaritime law enforcement forces, from sharing information, setting up hotlines,building mechanisms for joint monitoring and observation, and conducting jointpatrols to developing a code of conduct.

However, to create a basis for cooperation,countries’ maritime law enforcement agencies need to actively take measures tobuild up mutual trust and understanding, they said.

The content discussed and recommendations madeat this workshop will be summarised and reported to the 12th ARFInter-Sessional Meeting on Maritime Security, slated for April.

The third ARF workshop was part of activities toimplement the ARF statement on enhancing cooperation among maritime law enforcementagencies, which was proposed by Vietnam and adopted in 2016.

This statement calls on maritime law enforcementagencies of the ARF members to strengthen practical cooperation via suchactivities as sharing experience and good practices, enhancing capacity,maintaining joint patrols, and organising exercises to combat piracy andguarantee freedom of navigation and overflight./.