SEA GUARDIAN

In October 2001, it launched the maritime surveillance Operation Active Endeavour, focused on detecting and deterring terrorist activity in the Mediterranean.

At the NATO Warsaw Summit in July 2016, NATO announced the transformation of the Active Endeavour counter-terrorism mission in the Mediterranean to a broader maritime security operation. The new operation received the codename Sea Guardian. This is a non-article 5 maritime security operation aimed at working with Mediterranean stakeholders to maintain maritime situational awareness, counter-terrorism capabilities at sea and enhance capacity building.

Sea Guardian is currently performing three tasks in the Mediterranean Sea: maritime situational awareness, counter-terrorism at sea and support to capacity-building. If decided by Allies, it could also perform other tasks such as upholding freedom of navigation, conducting interdiction tasks and protecting critical infrastructure. More generally speaking, it is helping to maintain a secure and safe maritime environment while supporting the Alliance’s three core tasks: collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security.