lmage for representation purposes only India and Liberia have initiated a new group at the UN to provide security to commercial shipping and seafarers from increasing security threats. The Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarer s has been initiated on Friday, September 25, at the UN headquarters in New York. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Liberia’s Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti will head this group jointly. The new group will deal with the safety of commercial shipping and roughly two million merchant seafarers worldwide. Around 25 to 27 nations participated in or lent their support to the first ministerial-level conference of this new group. Among those were important ship-owning and coastal countries including France, Germany, Japan, and Russia. The group was formed amid growing security threats to commercial ships and seafarers in several parts of the world. Jaishankar referred to recent attacks in the Gulf and the Red Sea. He said there have been repeated attacks against the commercial shipping and seafarers in the Gulf, Red Sea and the surrounding regions recently. He denounced such attacks as they disrupt the maritime trade and take away the lives of innocent people. With this new group, nations will now be able to exchange intelligence and cooperate on shipping security. Jaishankar clarified that the new group will be based on practical cooperation and will complement existing organisations rather than replace them. They include the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This group will be voluntary in nature. The group will support the efforts of the IMO and the ILO. The new group will address issues of security threats and attacks against merchant vessels and seamen in regions like the Red Sea, the Gulf and the Black Sea. The other regions that will be considered are the Strait of Hormuz , Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb and Somali