SÃO PAULO – The multinational Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), which disrupts piracy and smuggling in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Oman, has not faced piracy events for the past six months, the former commander Rear Admiral André Luiz de Andrade Felix, from Brazil, said Friday during a video conference held by the Euro-Gulf Information Centre (EGIC). 

 The CTF-151 is one of the three missions carried by a coalition of 34 countries, being Egypt its latest member. The coalition was created in 2002 and is based in Bahrain under the command of the US Navy. The other two missions are the CTF-150, responsible for maritime security operations, especially counterterrorism, in the same areas of the CTF-151; and the CTF-152, which is responsible for maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf. 

 The CTF-151 has one destroyer from the Japanese Self-defence Force and another one from the South Korean Navy at its disposal. It also collaborates with vessels belonging to the other two CTFs’ missions and to other countries patrolling the area, such as China, Russia, and India, with whom the staff maintains open communication through an international maritime chat. 

 “Every time we have some kind of event or suspicious event near the Chinese ships, for instance, we send them information. They acknowledge it, go for investigation and give us feedback... It is a very important thing to share that we have countries working together with the same mission. We trust each other. At sea, we can share information,” said the former commander. 

 The coalition’s successful operations, alongside other international missions in the region, highlight the role of multinational alliances in safeguarding global diplomatic and commercial interests. 

 Rear Admiral Felix, who has recently passed on the post to a Jordanian Admiral, was the first Latin American to command the CTF-151, which reinforced Brazil’s capacity to contribute to peacekeeping in international waters. 

  Brasília has also demonstrated the strength of its naval force and extensive experience in peacekeeping operations during its participation in the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force (MTF), which was created in 2006 to intercept the entrance of illicit weapons and materials into Lebanon. 

 “Brazil has contributed to 50 UN peacekeeping operations out of 71 in the totality. It was present at the very beginning at the San Francisco conference, so it was among the 50 UN founding states,” said Brazilian Naval College researcher Melissa Rossi, who also spoke at the EGIC conference. 

 The South American country took the helm of the MTF from February 2011 to December 2020, protecting the Lebanese coastline and training the Lebanese Navy. Its good diplomatic and cultural ties with both Lebanon and Israel facilitated the country’s operations. 

 “Brazil has a non-interventionist position in the world. This is very important when you are heading a peacekeeping mission. It also has millions of Lebanese descendants. Actually, there are more Lebanese descendants in Brazil – not citizens, descendants – than the population of Lebanon itself, between seven million and ten million; and Brazil also holds the second largest Jewish community in Latin America after Argentina,” said Rossi. 

 The country has left the MTI as there is an interest in focusing more on the South Atlantic region, which is present in many of the country’s national defence policies. Most recently, it has deployed a ship in the Gulf of Guinea. 

 “We had a frigate two months ago and now we have an ocean patrol vessel there, too. In order to help the capacity building of the coastal countries there, like Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Cabo Verde, etc., we will keep these operations going in this region,” said Rear Admiral Felix, adding that Brazil’s maritime operations in the next years will be continued in a more proactive way.

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