On March 3-6 representatives of the Naval Sea and Coastal Surveillance Service of the Lithuanian Armed Forces attended a meeting of the Steering Board and the Co-ordination Group of the Sea Surveillance Co-operation Baltic Sea (SUCBAS) in Tallinn (Estonia). A yearlong chairmanship of the SUCBAS Steering Board rotated from Estonia to Lithuania while leading of the Co-ordination Group passed from Lithuania to Latvia.
"SUCBAS participating states continuously conduct surveillance in the Baltic sea region, exchange data on maritime surveillance and schedule joint training. That is crucial for ensuring maritime safety and security in the Baltic Sea region," said the new chair of the SUCBAS Steering Board, head of the Lithuanian Naval Sea and Coastal Surveillance Service Commander Svajūnas Bandzevičius. According to the officer, a sustained cooperation of SUCBAS participating nations inspires outside countries and institutions to join in.
8 nations are participants of the Sea Surveillance Co-operation Baltic Sea founded in 2009: Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, and Germany. SUCBAS participating nations are represented by delegates of defence ministries and navies. The decision-making institution of SUCBAS is the Steering Board while he Co-ordination Group is responsible for development and maintenance of SUCBAS Concepts of Operations, Operational Procedures, and Automated Interoperability Solutions, and joint events.
Countries of the Baltic Sea region also organised a seminar on maritime security challenges of global and national scopes which took place in the margins of the SUCBAS meeting.
SUCBAS Steering Board and Co-ordination Group meet biannually. Work meetings at technical level are conducted more frequently.
The Sea Surveillance Co-operation Baltic Sea (SUCBAS) contributes to the implementation of the Baltic Sea Region Strategy aimed at enhancing cooperation of the Baltic Sea region countries with the overall population of nearly 100m. The key SUCBAS objectives are to exchange surveillance information on the shipping in the Baltic Sea thus ensuring safety of navigation and contributing to regional cooperation in the areas of economy and ecology. The procedures standardised in the SUCBAS framework allow the participants to obtain and use common maritime surveillance experience and data.
More on SUCBAS at: http://www.sucbas.org.
Lithuanian Navy HQ CIMIC Officer Lieutenant (Navy) Antanas Brencius, office phone no. 00370 46 391 207, mobile phone no. 00370 698 181 96.
