In the first day of their meeting, NATO Defense Ministers found common ground in the fight against Somalian piracy.NATO officials said the seven frigates from a group that were to have taken part in an exercise in the Suez Canal region would arrive off the Somali coast within two weeks in response to a request from the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).While the press has not confirmed the ships by name yet, the exercise in the Suez Canal region was to be conducted by Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, which by my last count (and could be inaccuate), just happens to consist of 7 ships:
The decision to send the ships was taken at a meeting of defence ministers from the 26 NATO member states in Budapest, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
"Piracy is a serious problem for shipping in that area. It is also an immediate threat to the lives of the people in Somalia," he said. "Substantially more than 40 percent of the population depend on the food aid being delivered by ship."
The European Union has agreed to start planning for a joint naval force that could be ready for deployment by the end of the year.
NMM Durand de la Penne (D560)
USS Barry (DDG 52)
HMS Cumberland (F85)
TCG Gokova (F496)
FGS Karlsruhe (F212)
HS Kountouriotis (F468)
FGS Rhon (A1443)
The EU and NATO forces will work in a complimentary manner according to CNN, which is an interesting way of phrasing it. It is unclear if the EU forces have been granted the authority to fight pirates, but some of the news reporting regarding the NATO announcement is that the use of force has been authorized. Interesting times.
The RoE question would be a good one for the media. In our opinion, less is more. Said another way, less rules will produce more results.
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