European Union (EU) Special Envoy for the Indo-Pacific Gabriele Visentin has said they were still waiting for a final answer from the Bangladesh government regarding their offer to use a maritime awareness system named CRIMARIO.
“We’re very positively engaging (with the Bangladesh authority). This is a very concrete proposal that is on the table,” he said while responding to a question during an interaction with diplomatic correspondents.
Visentin spoke at an interactive session organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) at Jatiya Press Club on Friday.
Deputy Head of Mission of the European Union to Bangladesh Jeremy Opritesco, DCAB President Rezaul Karim Lotus and its General Secretary AKM Moinuddin were present.
EU Critical Maritime Route Wider Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO) aims to support countries in the region to enhance their Maritime Situational Awareness (MSA), the sharing and fusion of data from various sources to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the maritime domain and to promote its security and safety.
“It’s software. It can be used for many purposes. It could equip both navies and coastguards and it allows knowing what is exactly happening at sea,” said the EU special envoy, hoping that they will soon get a final answer from Bangladesh.
The EU special envoy highlighted seven priority areas for EU action - sustainable and inclusive prosperity; green transition; ocean governance; digital governance and partnerships; connectivity; security and defence and human security.
Talking about one of the seven pillars of the EU Indo-Pacific Strategy - security and defence, he said they very much want to strengthen their presence in this area.
