UN SECURITY COUNCIL OPEN DEBATE
MAINTENANCE OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY: MARITIME SECURITY
Statement by H.E Ambassador James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
20 May 2025
Thank you, President. Australia is a major maritime nation whose coastline links the Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans. We rely heavily on a free, open and secure maritime domain, managed in accordance with international law.
We welcome the focus of today’s debate, because we agree that threats and disruptions to maritime security continue to emerge and evolve, and that this is a matter of concern for the Security Council.
Australia will always pursue a world where differences are settled peacefully, through agreed rules and norms.
President, when maritime disputes arise, it is imperative that parties not only respect international law, but also use its established frameworks and mechanisms to resolve them.
We emphasise the primacy of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out.
And we reject excessive and unlawful maritime claims that are inconsistent with UNCLOS.
Conduct that limits other countries’ ability to exercise their sovereign rights is not acceptable. Nor is activity that impedes the freedoms of navigation and overflight.
And we remain concerned by behaviour that risks miscalculation and escalation, particularly in the South China Sea, where we have seen dangerous and aggressive actions including against the Philippines.
President, Australia also condemns attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Houthi terrorist group strikes on commercial shipping severely disrupted navigational rights and freedoms, international commerce and maritime security.
Meanwhile, the deliberate destruction of undersea cables in the Baltic and elsewhere has caused economic and other harm to our interconnected global community.
As these cases reveal, there is a clear need for global and regional cooperation to ensure maritime security incidents are contained, and disputes are resolved peacefully.
Australia is working with partners in the Indo-Pacific to address regional maritime security challenges.
In Southeast Asia, we're investing in partnerships to enhance maritime domain awareness, support sustainable marine resource management and protection of the marine environment, and to uphold UNCLOS.
We also reaffirm our strong ongoing support for ASEAN’s centrality and unity and the practical implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
In the Pacific, we're working with partner countries to combat transnational crime and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Australia is also working with the EU and others to support delimitation of maritime boundaries in the Pacific, which need to be preserved against the threats of sea-level rise.
And in the Indian Ocean, we're playing a leading role in promoting maritime security capabilities, including through the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
President, we support Greece’s call for using relevant international organisations to manage maritime security issues and for protecting and enhancing compliance with existing legal instruments.
Australia is a founding member of the International Maritime Organisation and continues to underscore the universal and unified character of UNCLOS.
We continue to insist that international law and multilateralism underpin our shared security and prosperity.
Thank you.