MAST’s Gerry Northwood calls for global maritime action at CSO Alliance summit

Earlier this month, MAST’s COO Gerry Northwood attended the CSO Alliance Workshop in Athens, an event organized by the online members-only platform, to unite Chief Security officers from across the world. Gerry shared the stage with speakers from Hellenic War Risks and BIMCO in an event that bridged issues from migration to floating armouries.
During his talk, ‘The Impact on Trade Routing and Planning from Global Security Threats’, Gerry made the case for the expansion and development of Best Management Practice 4 (BMP4) into a global standard for maritime security, and advocated that the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code be better enforced globally.

Trade routes are highly vulnerable to terrorism, piracy and regional tensions. Great strides have been made in the Western Indian Ocean thanks to the implementation of BMP, national convoys, increased naval patrols and armed guards on commercial vessels, but to relax these measures could see the resurgence of Somali piracy. Conflicts in the Middle East pose significant threats to security in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, and China’s aggressive incursions in the contested South China Sea represent another danger to vessels and their crew.
MAST has long argued that the global shipping industry needs to adopt a more security-based approach, similar to that which has developed on commercial airlines over the last decade. Where supply routes are concerned, a regional issue can quickly become a global one and global shipping depends upon the maritime security of crucial, but often dangerous, areas.
The expansion of BMP and the proper implementation of ISPS is a necessary step in making our seas a safer place, but it requires the collaboration of the global maritime community to become a reality.