BELGIUM: MAY 29 PIRACY CONTACT GROUP MEETING

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 000637 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/WE, EUR/RPM, PM/PPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2019 TAGS: MARR ECON PREL BE SO SUBJECT: BELGIUM: MAY 29 PIRACY CONTACT GROUP MEETING REF: A. STATE 45157 ¶B. BRUSSELS 580 ¶C. BRUSSELS 624 Classified By: Political Economic Counselor Richard Eason, reason 1.4(b ) and (d). ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered ref A demarche on the May 29 Contact Group meeting to Peter Vandevelde, Counselor for European Security and Defense Policy in the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on May 5. Vandevelde said that the GOB will be represented at the May 29 meeting in New York. However, at the previous plenary meetings of the Contact Group, Belgium was represented from its UN mission, and it has not yet been decided if anyone from Brussels will go. Vandevelde and a colleague from the Ministry of Defense will attend the Working Group 1 meeting in London on May 7-8, and some Belgian legal experts are attending the Copenhagen meeting on legal issues the week of May 4. Vandevelde thanked Poloff for the United State's commitment to the fight against piracy and its leadership of the contact group. ¶2. (C) Vandevelde said that the Belgian government's attention has been concentrated on the piracy issue by the recent hijacking of a Belgian ship, which is still held by Somali pirates. The Belgian merchant fleet is among the top 20 in the world, both in number of ships and tonnage. Freedom of navigation through the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean is important to Belgian importers and exporters, and to ships of other nations that use the seaports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge. Therefore, the government has decided to send 8-member military "Vessel Protection Detachments" to the region, in order to offer additional protection to Belgian ships, if requested by the shipowners. (Note: On April 29, the Council of Ministers approved putting the military on board Belgian merchant ships passing through Somali waters between now and the end of June. The Ministers required shipowners to first request assistance from the EU-led Atalanta operation (in which one of Belgium's two naval frigates, the Marie-Louise, will participate from September) before they turn to the Belgian military. Reportedly, the charge for the service will be 115,000 euros for a week-long mission. End Note.) The government is in close contact with its shipowners to share information and coordinate actions. It is working on legislation to make it possible to bring captured pirates before Belgian courts. ¶3. (C) Vandevelde said that in his opinion, the idea of targeting pirates' assets is sound and the government looks forward to hearing more about it in New York. The strategy has been proven to work against the Mafia, he said, and piracy in Somalia has much in common with that criminal organization. It is run by a number of godfathers who have carved up the territory and send their "soldiers" out to do the dirty work, he observed. BUSH .