Bahrain and the US have signed a new landmark agreement to utilise satellite imagery to monitor maritime security and determine the impact of climate change.
The ‘Geospatial Accelerator Initiative’ was signed yesterday by National Security Adviser and Royal Guard Commander Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa and US Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger, US Ambassador Steven Bondy revealed during a Press meet on the sidelines of the ongoing IISS Regional Security Summit: Manama Dialogue, taking place at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain.
According to Mr Bondy, the initiative will open the door for the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces to use imagery, mostly from satellites, in order to ensure safety of maritime operations.
“This dovetails nicely with the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), which is now 46 nations all operating under the three-star Vice Admiral here, and it is aimed at combating smuggling of all kinds – narcotics, weapons or people,” Mr Bondy added.
“The CMF is something that Bahrain has been an active participant and leader in – and when we are talking about counter-smuggling, counter-terrorism, combating weapons sumuggling and proliferation, this initiative is also going to be use the highest end technologies to try to track threats to security.”
Noting that this was the government to government aspect of the Geospatial Accelerator Initiative, Mr Bondy also noted that the conditions for private sector and commercial engagement with the agreement were also being set in place.
This would cover the safety and security of undersea Internet cables, upon which much of the region relies for its high-speed Internet and communications.
When asked by the GDN how the data for the initiative would be managed and what the next steps would be, Mr Bondy noted that US experts would be visiting Bahrain soon to plan a path forward and gave a wide time-frame for the implementation, from one year to five years.
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