Türkei/Singapur

By Navy Pet­ty Offi­cer 1st Class Monique K. Hil­ley
Spe­cial to Amer­i­can Forces Press Service 

Turkey and Sin­ga­pore recent­ly com­mit­ted forces to join Com­bined Task Force 151, a naval coali­tion ded­i­cat­ed to con­duct­ing counter-pira­cy oper­a­tions in the Gulf of Aden. 

Turkey and Sin­ga­pore will join oth­er nations — includ­ing the Unit­ed States, the Unit­ed King­dom and Den­mark — that have con­duct­ed oper­a­tions as part of the task force. 

“Coali­tion ships are a crit­i­cal part of our mis­sion,” U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ter­ry McK­night, com­man­der of CTF 151, said. “The very nature of some of our oper­a­tions, as well as the suc­cess of those oper­a­tions, is often pred­i­cat­ed on our abil­i­ty to work effec­tive­ly with our part­ners and allies.” 

Inter­na­tion­al law oblig­ates all nations to coop­er­ate to the fullest extent in the repres­sion of pira­cy. Coali­tion forces have tak­en action nec­es­sary to repress pira­cy in the region in accor­dance with inter­na­tion­al law to ensure free and secure use of the world’s oceans by legit­i­mate mariners, task force offi­cials said. 

“The pres­ence of inter­na­tion­al navy ves­sels in the region demon­strates our com­mit­ment to region­al secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty,” McK­night said. “To con­tin­ue to counter and deter desta­bi­liz­ing activ­i­ties suc­cess­ful­ly, coali­tion efforts must be com­ple­ment­ed by proac­tive mea­sures by com­mer­cial ship­pers, region­al gov­ern­ments and the inter­na­tion­al community.” 

The task force has worked with and empha­sized the impor­tant role mer­chants can play by tak­ing proac­tive mea­sures to pre­vent board­ings, such as trav­el­ing at speeds greater than 15 knots, report­ing sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty and pulling their lad­ders up to pre­vent access to the ships. 

Even with increased naval forces in the region, coali­tion ves­sels have not always been close enough to a help a ship that was being attacked. 

“The bot­tom line is that pira­cy is an inter­na­tion­al prob­lem that requires an inter­na­tion­al solu­tion,” McK­night said. “We are com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing oper­a­tions that counter and deter pira­cy and oth­er desta­bi­liz­ing activ­i­ties in the mar­itime are­na to cre­ate a law­ful mar­itime order.” 

(Navy Pet­ty Offi­cer 1st Class Monique K. Hil­ley serves in the 5th Fleet pub­lic affairs office.) 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)