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The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, Information Sharing Centre (ReCAAP ISC) has published its half yearly report for piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia between January and June 2014. ReCAAP Half Yearly Report.

The Executive Summary notes that, "A total of 73 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships was reported in Asia during January-June 2014 Eighteen of these incidents were piracy incidents and 55 were armed robberies against ships.

Notably, the number of incidents of armed robbery against ships was lowest during January-June 2014 compared to the same period of 2010-2013, and this was attributed to, amongst others, a decline in the number of incidents at ports and anchorages in Indonesia. Except for incidents involving the siphoning of fuel/oil from product/oil tankers which warrants careful monitoring and collective efforts by the shipping industry and authorities in addressing the situation; the overall significant level of incidents reported during January-June 2014 has stabilised and remains fairly consistent compared to the same period in the past four years.

It is noted that the cooperative mechanism of the littoral States in sharing information and operational cooperation in responding to transnational maritime crime was demonstrated in the incident involving, "Ai Maru" which was boarded by pirates on 14 Jun 2014. Timely reporting by the shipowner enabled the ReCAAP ISC to alert the Focal Point of Singapore, the Information Fusion Centre (IFC) and the enforcement agency of Singapore who, together with the regional maritime authorities from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, deployed their assets to the location of the incident."

Further information as well as incident reports may be obtained from ReCAAP ISC's website: http://www.recaap.org/