Red Sea nations step up maritime cooperation as regional threats grow

From piracy and migrant smuggling to disruptions affecting global shipping routes, countries bordering one of the world’s busiest waterways are seeking closer cooperation to stay ahead of fast-evolving maritime threats.As maritime tensions ripple across parts of the Middle East, security officials from Ethiopia, Yemen, Djibouti and Somalia gathered in Nairobi this week to tackle a shared concern: how to protect the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from growing threats that no country can manage alone.The two-day Maritime Law Enforcement Dialogue, facilitated by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with support from the European Union, INTERPOL, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), focused on strengthening information-sharing and cooperation across the region.For officials attending, the timing was hard to ignore.“If you are talking about threats, the current attacks on the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz have an impact on Gulf of Aden because [they are] affecting maritime security. Pirates use this opportunity and the distraction of the maritime forces globally to do more attacks in this area, because the...