Russia and Kenya reiterated on Tuesday a call for the creation of an international tribunal on sea piracy to help thwart frequent pirate attacks on commercial shipping off the Somalia coast.
Russia earlier urged other UN General Assembly members to focus on the legal aspects of fighting piracy to ensure "concerted and efficient actions to prosecute those involved in piracy."
"We discussed today a well-known Russian initiative on establishing an international tribunal to prosecute pirates," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Kenyan counterpart George Saitoti in Nairobi.
"This issue is on the agenda of discussions in the UN Security Council...and our Kenyan friends support this work," Lavrov told reporters.
Lavrov said the international community must take more decisive actions against the pirates, including the effective use of combat ships on an anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa.
The Russian Navy has maintained a presence in the region since October 2008, with warships operating on a rotation basis.
The Russian minister also called for assistance to the Somali government to eradicate the causes of sea piracy, including the absence of fully-fledged statehood and poverty in Somalia.
"In this context, we are certain that it is necessary to offer support to the current interim government of Somalia and to the mission of the African Union in this country," Lavrov said.
According to the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the number of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden decreased in the first half of 2010 by 34 percent year-on-year mostly due to the ongoing anti-piracy operation off the Somali coast.
However, Somali pirates have been reported to shift their attacks from their own coast and were responsible for 44% of the 289 piracy incidents on the world's seas in the first nine months of 2010, according to IMB.
NAIROBI, November 16 (RIA Novosti)
