Earlier this month, MaltaToday (1 September) reported that the Government of Malta, through Minister Glenn Bedingfield, called for stronger European maritime-security arrangements following incidents such as that of the Arctic Metagaz ship, which exposed questions concerning jurisdiction, sanctions, environmental responsibility, and intervention at sea. Malta has also called for greater protection of critical seabed infrastructure, including telecommunications cables, electricity interconnectors and pipelines.
More recently, The Maritime Executive (7 September) reported that the Russia-flagged Ro-Ro cargo vessel Lady Mariia had been attacked by aerial drones while sailing eastwards in the Mediterranean after departing Oran, Algeria. The vessel had been tracked around 50 nautical miles east of Malta the previous day, before the reported attack took place farther east, between Crete and Libya.
Whatever the wider circumstances surrounding this incident, it provides another reminder that the Mediterranean is not insulated from contemporary geopolitical conflict. Indeed, shipping routes and maritime infrastructure often become visible precisely when something goes wrong. Ports, cables and interconnectors sustain trade, communications, energy, employment and everyday consumption, yet most of us rarely think about the complex networks behind them.
According to UN Trade and Development, "Maritime transport is the backbone of global trade, moving over 80% of goods traded worldwide by volume." Conflict affecting shipping routes and strategic chokepoints can therefore have consequences far beyond the countries directly involved. Writing in the Times of Malta on 9 August, Godwin Xerri and Kevin J. Borg of the Malta Maritime Forum highlighted Malta's dependence on maritime trade for food, fuel, medicines, raw materials, and consumer goods. When conflict, piracy or attacks on shipping force vessels onto longer routes, additional fuel, insurance and operating costs can eventually reach households and businesses through higher prices, energy insecurity and disrupted supply chains.
In sociological terms, maritime connectivity is a structural condition of much of our everyday social life. But ships do not move by themselves. Maritime security must also mean security for seafarers. For example, the International Maritime Organization has reported that thousands of seafarers, together with port workers and offshore crews, have been affected by conflict and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz.
The human dimension extends further. The Mediterranean is also a space where migrants risk, and sometimes lose, their lives while attempting to cross borders. Whatever one's position on migration policy, people in distress at sea confront real questions of life, death, safety and human rights. Their experiences should form part of how we understand maritime security.
The sea can also be used for illicit and criminal activities, including drug trafficking and human trafficking. Here too, we have perpetrators and victims, with consequences extending to families and communities.
Maritime security is therefore also a question of governance.
Security cannot concern only shipping lanes, strategic infrastructure, corporations, and states. It should include seafarers, fishers, port workers, migrants, coastal communities, commuters, and other users of the sea. It should account for environmental risks, many of which cross national boundaries.
The challenge is therefore broader than keeping ports competitive and ships moving. Maritime resilience increasingly involves geopolitical stability, infrastructure security, combating criminal activity, labour rights and safety, environmental protection, social equity and blue justice.
Malta's geographic position and dependence on maritime connectivity mean that it is in our national interest that maritime security is strengthened through European, Mediterranean and global cooperation. In this respect, I agree with the Government's position that Malta should actively push for stronger maritime-security arrangements.
Malta can also contribute further. We should make the case for sustainable maritime security. Such security should integrate economic resilience and connectivity with environmental protection, while placing social and people-centred considerations at its heart. It should ask not only whether shipping routes, borders and infrastructure are secure, but whether workers are protected, people in distress are treated humanely, communities are resilient and environmental risks are addressed.
Michael Briguglio is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta
www.michaelbriguglio.com