They have seriously disrupted shipping in one of the busiest maritime passages in the world, and their tactics could easily be adopted by terrorist groups — including Islamist groups inside Somalia linked to Al Qaeda — looking to cripple global commerce.
China and the U.S. should seek to have meaningful dialogue, based on understanding to ensure the maintenance of peace, security and unimpeded access to maritime passages in the South China Sea.
"Probably the most vivid memory other than kamikaze attacks was going across the equator," Mr. Stansbery said, recalling an age-old maritime rite of passage.
Turning to the Arctic waters of the Northwest Passage, a maritime route claimed by Canada, James P. Delgado, executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, wrote in Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper, "Our northern frontier is ours thanks to the blood sacrifice the Arctic exacted from our explorers".
With China becoming more dependent on Middle Eastern energy, we should discuss maritime regulations to ensure free passage of ships and include China in Pacific naval exercises.
Beijing and Washington have major disputes over maritime rules -- namely, "innocent passage," "freedom of navigation" and "passive settlement of international disputes" -- and also interpreting the UN Convention on Laws of the Sea.
The 'Passage Exercises' focussed on maritime security cooperation, which included humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) operations and 'Visit, Board, Search and Seizure' (VBSS) drills for anti-piracy operations.
The prospect of an ice-free Northwest Passage will certainly increase maritime traffic and efforts to extract resources such as minerals, oil and natural gas in the high Arctic.
"They don't normally make these ocean passages," Richard Hurley, a senior maritime data specialist at IHS Fairplay, said in a phone interview from the group's London offices.
