Media Release
U.S.-FSM Shiprider Agreement Becomes Permanent
May 29, 2008
During a ceremony in Palikir on May 27, the FSM Secretary of Foreign Affairs Lorin Robert and U.S. Ambassador Miriam Hughes exchanged diplomatic notes that together constitute a historic "Cooperative Shipriders Agreement" designed to help protect the FSM’s maritime boundaries and ocean resources. The agreement will allow armed and uniformed law enforcement officers of the FSM National Police to embark on selected U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement vessels or aircraft and to use those assets to patrol FSM waters for the purpose of enforcing FSM laws and regulations.
Witnessing the ceremony were FSM Secretary of Justice Maketo Robert, Coast Guard Commander Theresa M. Neumann, FSM National Police Chief Pius Chotailug, and FSM National Oceanic Resource Management Authority Deputy Director Eugene Pangelinan.
This permanent Shiprider Agreement builds upon the success of two earlier temporary agreements that authorized FSM National Police to serve as shipriders aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutters. The operations that followed those temporary agreements enabled FSM law enforcement officers to inspect several foreign vessels suspected of illegal fishing in FSM waters and resulted in the seizure and fining of some of those fishing vessels.
Hailing the agreement as “a significant step forward in collective maritime security,” Ambassador Hughes said the U.S.-FSM partnership “binds together two law-abiding, democratic and sovereign nations to protect the maritime domain, which is the life blood of the global system for commerce, food and sustenance.”