Seychelles-Led Maritime Security Group Concludes 3rd Plenary in Port-Louis
📷 Photo: Esther Kung’u Njonde / IMO, via Indian Ocean Commission
VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Seychelles-chaired Contact Group on Illicit Maritime Activities (CGIMA) held its 3rd Plenary Session in Port-Louis, Mauritius on 24 July, drawing more than 130 representatives from 16 countries, 26 regional, international and non-governmental organisations, four universities and two think tanks, the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) has confirmed.
The meeting closed the European Union Maritime Security Week, which had opened in Mauritius on 21 July. It was the third time Seychelles has steered the body since taking over the rotating chair from Kenya in 2024, and the second time the country has led the wider anti-piracy architecture originally set up as the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), which the Indian Ocean Commission picked up in 2021 under its expanded CGIMA name.
The plenary focused on assessing progress made under the Seychelles chair, strengthening regional cooperation across the Western Indian Ocean, and identifying shared priorities for the year ahead, particularly in the fight against drug trafficking, human smuggling, arms trafficking, illegal fishing and piracy, and the protection of submarine data cables, the IOC said in its communique.
Major General Michael Rosette, Chief of Defence Forces of the Republic of Seychelles, chaired the session on behalf of the chair country, with the Seychelles delegation led by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Defence.
The Russian Federation, which sent a delegation headed by Petr Ilyichev, Director of the Department for New Challenges and Threats at the Russian Foreign Ministry, used the platform to draw attention to a worrying trend in two of the most strategic waterways in the Western Indian Ocean.
“During the session, the Russian side drew the attention of Contact Group participants to the alarming situation in the waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Mozambique Channel due to increased activity by pirate groups and associated terrorist groups in Somalia and Mozambique respectively,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by afrinz.ru, an English-language Russian outlet.
Moscow called on Western Indian Ocean states to become more actively involved in security work, including through technical assistance delivered via international organisations, and pointed to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Maritime Crime Programme as a vehicle for capacity building. It also raised the issue of civilian vessels detained by the naval forces of a number of Western states on the basis of “unilateral restrictive measures” adopted without United Nations Security Council authorisation, describing the practice as contrary to international law.
The plenary came against a backdrop of fresh Russian-flagged vessel detentions in the European theatre earlier this month and renewed concerns in the shipping industry about the security of the major Asia-Europe sea lanes that pass through the Indian Ocean via the Gulf of Aden and around the Cape. Around 70 per cent of global container traffic and a significant share of the world’s oil and gas shipments transit the Bab el-Mandeb strait alone.
Russia expressed its appreciation to the governments of Mauritius and Seychelles, and to the Indian Ocean Commission, for their contribution to maritime-security work, and confirmed the next CGIMA plenary will be held in the first half of 2027.
For Seychelles, which now holds the chair for a renewable two-year term, the plenary forms part of a wider push to deepen regional coordination on maritime crime and to keep the country’s vast Exclusive Economic Zone and the Western Indian Ocean corridor safe, an objective the country’s political leadership has repeatedly tied to both economic survival and the country’s contribution to global blue-economy governance.
Seychelles holds one of the largest ocean territories per capita in the world and sits astride key shipping and submarine-cable routes linking Africa, the Gulf and Asia, making the country’s leadership of CGIMA and aligned forums a strategic national concern.
Sources cited: Indian Ocean Commission — Communique: the region and the international community close ranks to face rising maritime risks, 24 July 2026; afrinz.ru — Russia calls for stronger security in Gulf of Aden and Mozambique Channel, 25 July 2026; Maritimafrica — RMIFC Participates in the 3rd CGIMA Plenary Session in Mauritius, 24 July 2026; Seychelles Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Seychelles to assume CGIMA chairmanship, 7 September 2024; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — about UNODC; Indian Ocean Commission — About the IOC.
