India-Liberia led group aims to bring safety of seafarers to centre of global discourse: MEA

New Delhi: The Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers (GoF S4), led by India and Liberia, aims to bring the safety of seafarers and commercial shipping to the centre of global discourse and enhance international cooperation to keep ships and crews safe from attacks, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday.

On Thursday, India and Liberia's Permanent missions to the United Nations strongly condemned attacks on shipping and seafarers in the Gulf and the Black Sea.

India and Liberia launched the GoF on S4 on September 25 and stand ready to support more coordination to discourage recurrence of such attacks and to safeguard the rights of seafarers.

Addressing a bi-weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Friday, MEA’s official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the group seeks to bring together countries and stakeholders involved in commercial shipping and the maritime industry, as well as those that are lead providers of services or have a large seafaring community.

“The idea is to get them together so that we can bring the issue of the safety of our seafarers and the issue of the safety of commercial shipping to the centre of global discourse and discussion, and we can enhance international cooperation and operations so as to ensure that commercial shipping is not impacted, they are not attacked, and the seafarers are safe and secure,” Jaiswal said.

The spokesperson recalled that the first meeting of the group took place in New York recently. It was presided by External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and Liberian Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti and joined by 25 countries.

Jaiswal highlighted that, on Thursday, both India and Liberia strongly condemned the string of attacks that have happened on commercial ships and on seafarers, both in the Gulf region as well as in the Black Sea region.

“India and Liberia, as co-chairs of the Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers (GoF on S4), strongly condemn the string of unacceptable attacks that commercial ships and seafarers have been subjected to in the Gulf and its vicinity, the Black Sea, over the past few days. These actions that disrupt maritime trade and cost innocent lives are simply indefensible. We call for an immediate cessation of such attacks in the interest of peace and stability in the region,” the joint statement issued by India and Liberia on Thursday mentioned.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the seafarers who have lost their lives and pray for early recovery of those injured,” it added.

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