WAM Dubai, 27th June 2012 (WAM):- The UAE today called on the international community to provide support for Somalia and its neighbours so as to build their national effective response capabilities to piracy off their coasts.

''In this respect the UAE is pleased to contribute US$ 1 million to building and upgrading capabilities of Somali naval forces and coast guard to carry out their missions properly,'' HH Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the opening session of the 2nd high-level, public-private UAE Counter-Piracy Conference, co-convened by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and global marine terminal operator DP World.

''The second conference comes at a critical time for both Somalia and partners advancing the international response to maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia,'' Sheikh Abdullah said in his address read on his behalf by Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Sheikh Abdullah stressed the need for maintaining the momentum of progress gained in the first conference to reach a holistic solution to the international problem.

''We particularly need to ensure that progress will produce positive results for the people of Somalia in a bid to arrive at our long-term, sustainable solution to the piracy off the Somali coast,'' he said, adding that the UAE would like to raise two main issues in these meetings. First: the human threat piracy poses off the coast of Somalia which we evidently sense in the trauma of captive seafarers and their families. That threat was escalating last year as more seafarers were held captive for long time, facing violence and increasing inhuman conditions. DP World and its industry partners view piracy as a matter of grave international concern.

''We in the UAE have a longstanding maritime and trade history that is why we are deeply concerned for the suffering of those captive seafarers,'' he added, emphasising that governments should strive to work out adequate means that could explore new methods to mitigate the suffering of those seafarers.

Second; It is quite clear now that there is a need for concerted efforts to formulate a more capable regional command within the international anti-piracy response out of the fact that the regionally-managed solution is the only one capable of surviving in the long run.

This conference, he added, sends a clear message : Somalia's regional partners will stay put and steadfast at the first lines of international response against threat of maritime piracy.

WAM/TF