At the 9th Plenary Session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia held on 14 July 2011 in New York, the ASF Secretary General was honoured to have the opportunity to share our grave concerns over the current situation.

The ASF informed the Contact Group about our disappointment at the lack of concrete action and plan by the UN or any country in making headway to eradicate this threat.

While acknowledging the need for capacity building efforts to solve the root cause of the problem which is on land, the ASF also voiced our considered opinion that governments and flag states should deploy effective counter-piracy mechanisms to mitigate the problem. This could be in a form of an UN Peacekeeping Counter Piracy Task Force that would give armed escort, protection and much needed confidence to the hundreds of ships and seafarers plying those high risk areas.