UN’s Al-Mashat warns maritime disruption threatens Arab development

Disruptions to maritime corridors can quickly turn into economic and social crises, making their stability essential to protecting development in the Arab region and beyond, UN Under-Secretary-General Rania Al-Mashat said on Thursday.

Al-Mashat, who is also executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), made the remarks in a speech at a UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting organised by Bahrain in New York.

The meeting was held under the theme “Safe Seas, Shared Security: Protecting Freedom of Navigation in an Evolving Security Environment.”

Al-Mashat opened her remarks by stressing the interconnected nature of maritime corridors. “Geography is back and with force,” she said.

Technology has shortened distances and globalisation has connected markets, but it has not eliminated the seas, straits, and corridors through which global trade moves.

Seas, straits, and ports stretching from the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb form a single interconnected system carrying energy, food, and trade, Al-Mashat said.

“If one link is disrupted, the chain is shaken,” she said, stressing that multiple routes alone were not enough unless they were managed as an interconnected system.

Economic shock

Countries in the region have responded to disruptions by redirecting shipments, activating multimodal transport, and using alternative routes, Al-Mashat said.

The impact of a disruption, she added, depends not only on the severity of the initial shock but also on the speed of the response and the effectiveness of the measures used.

She warned that such crises come at a time when regional economies were growing and implementing reforms, putting years of reform and investment at risk.

“We are not only losing opportunities for the future; we also risk losing the fruits of years of reform and investment,” she said.

The costs of maritime disruption are not distributed equally, Al-Mashat said, with shocks starting at sea, moving through markets and ultimately affecting people’s lives.

Arab countries experiencing or emerging from conflicts are the least able to absorb such shocks, she said. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for the majority of businesses in the Arab world, are particularly vulnerable.

Their survival is “a matter of employment and social stability, not merely a commercial issue,” she said.

“The ship does not carry goods alone; it carries prices, investment, jobs, and food security,” Al-Mashat said, linking the stability of maritime corridors to the prosperity of coastal countries.

“Security of the corridors is a condition for protecting development,” she said.

Three regional priorities

Al-Mashat outlined three interconnected priorities: protecting freedom of navigation and maritime corridor security in accordance with international law; preventing conflicts from expanding and containing their cross-border repercussions; and strengthening regional preparedness and resilience.

She also highlighted ESCWA’s role in promoting collective action and regional integration.

The commission has established, together with Arab countries, a regional team for transport, logistics, and supply chains, she said. The team is focused on developing early-warning and coordination mechanisms, including operations rooms that can be activated when needed.

Al-Mashat called for greater investment in ports and multimodal land, sea and rail connectivity, saying that opening maritime corridors and building resilience to disruptions were separate but equally necessary tasks.

“Opening corridors is one necessity, and building resilience is another,” she said.

Al-Mashat said geography can constrain countries but does not determine their fate, calling for the region to counter “the power of geography with the power of regional cooperation.”

“What happens in our region does not stay there, and what protects the stability of the region protects the global economy,” she concluded.