Dr. Margaret Stanley:

The overall geopolitical situation is extremely concerning from our perspective. We can see the very volatile geopolitical situation that is occurring. Even the news today has highlighted the vulnerabilities of our infrastructure. I am looking at the maritime space specifically. The increasing actions of the State do highlight these vulnerabilities. With the strategy we need to consider all of the mitigations we need to put in place and how we can better organise ourselves to deal with this threat from the shadow fleet and other such threats.

The Russian shadow fleet does not just present a security threat. It also presents a safety and environmental threat because these ships that might be going near our waters can often be very poorly maintained and might have badly trained crew on board. If anything happened to these vessels, it could be a very significant event for the maritime environment considering the cargo they carry.