On 5 June 2014, representatives from 27 Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) partner nations met at the organisation’s Bahrain headquarters to discuss future planning and force generation.
The conference was organised to review CMF’s operational achievements over the past six months and those of its three task groups, and to review future objectives. It was also an opportunity to discuss with member nations their future contributions to CMF.
The conference was hosted by Vice Admiral John Miller, Commander of Combined Maritime Forces who took the opportunity to focus on the highlights since the last conference in December 2013. This included continued successes in the area of counter-narcotics, with significant seizures in the past six months, Maritime Security Operations that support the freedom of movement for the shipping and fishing industries in the Arabian Gulf and, along with other regional players, reducing piracy to a two year low.
In his closing comments, Vice Admiral Miller said, “This has been an extremely successful CMF conference. Over the last 12 months we have demonstrated our effectiveness in providing security and stability in the region. CMF continues to have strong relationships with countries in the Gulf region and beyond, while we sustain commitments through the solid support from member nations.”
The organiser of the event, Commander Gavin Coyle, Royal Navy, reiterated the value of these meetings. He said, “These conferences offer an excellent opportunity for like-minded nations to come together and discuss broad maritime security issues and clarify our response to them.”
Commander Coyle also noted that the meetings had been very successful in terms of future planning. He said: “During this conference we have also confirmed the proposed command rotation for CMF and the CTFs going out to 2016.”
Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) 