Contship Jet at UN Security Council: Greek PM calls for global maritime truce
After the Greek-owned container ship sank off Cape Kaliakra, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis condemned drone strikes on merchant vessels in New York and urged a worldwide maritime truce.
Archive image · Photo: Yorgos Karahalis / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The drone attack on the Contship Jet in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone has reached the U.N. Security Council. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis condemned the strike on the vessel, which Bulgarian public broadcaster BNT said is owned by a Greek company, at a high-level debate on maritime security in New York. "We categorically condemn this attack," he said, according to BNT. Greece holds the council's rotating presidency in October.
Mitsotakis called for a global maritime truce so that commercial ships can sail safely even during conflicts. Attacks on civilian merchant shipping are "completely unacceptable," he said, as quoted by Bulgaria's BTA news agency, adding that they drive up freight and insurance costs and ultimately raise prices for consumers. According to Reuters, he warned that the seas must not become a "jungle."
The Liberian-flagged ship was hit by drones on Oct. 28 about 17 nautical miles off Cape Kaliakra and later sank; its crew was rescued. Military prosecutors in Sofia have opened an investigation. Officially, it has not been established who was behind the attack.