Statements made by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, during his joint press briefing with Col. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, President of Somalia (excerpts)

Paris, 5 May 2008

PIRACY/INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION FORCE

THE MINISTER – (…) France has proposed a resolution at the United Nations Security Council which, I hope, will be passed in a few days’ time. This draft resolution, currently under discussion, provides among other things for establishing a standing international force to escort ships sailing off the Somali coast and in other parts of the world such as the Malacca Strait.

So we’re talking about an international organization to protect offshore waters, Somalia’s in particular, and I hope this can be set up in a few days’ time; this is what the Somali President is requesting. (…)

Q. – I’d like to come back to the international force which could one day protect offshore waters. Has the “Le Ponant” crisis and hostage-taking on that French yacht speeded up the process?

THE MINISTER – We’ve already responded by protecting World Food Programme ships; we escorted them for three months. It wasn’t logical not to respond with an international force, a standing one – the Danes, then the Dutch took over from us – since this situation is permanent.

It was wholly consistent with what we’d done and I’m very proud to have taken this initiative to protect the “World Food Programme” ships. Sadly, it was premonitory. (…)

Q. – You asked for this international force, but did the “Le Ponant” crisis make the situation more acute?

THE MINISTER – It underscored the necessity for an international force. We three nations [France, Denmark and the Netherlands] had already formed one but, obviously, we weren’t doing enough escorting. We didn’t have enough ships to escort all the vessels sailing off the coast. We’d… not targeted but provided very specific protection for ships carrying food to the starving Somali people. We then proposed this international force. But it still hasn’t been established and I hope this resolution will be passed in the coming days or weeks. At any rate, it has been well received. (…)./.