By IANS/WAM,
Abu Dhabi : The UN has hailed the UAE’s initiative of hosting a conference April 18-19 in Dubai on countering piracy in the Indian Ocean.Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on Legal issues related to piracy off the coast of Somalia Jack Lang has welcomed UAE’s initiative.
The conference will be the first ever to be attended by both the 60 nations and international organisations striving to combat piracy and around 100 businesses, shipping companies, charterers and insurers affected or concerned by this scourge.
Jack Lang, who will present the report on piracy off the coast of Somalia during the conference, has insisted that the international community needs to respond firmly to a phenomenon of extreme gravity for the region and the world’s economies as a whole.
Since the start of the piracy off the coast of Somalia, 700 attacks have been reported and over 2,000 seafarers have been taken hostage, 790 of them in 2010 alone.
“Piracy has destabilising effects on the entire Indian Ocean region. The United Arab Emirates, like all Gulf countries, is no longer spared this scourge. The security of trade flows to and from the Gulf countries is under threat”, he added.