Asian coast guard high-level meeting to address non-traditional security challenges

The upcoming 22nd Heads of Asian Coast Guard Agencies (HACGAM) High-Level Meeting will focus on non-traditional security challenges and ways to manage risks and crises amid a "complex and volatile" regional maritime security situation, a China Coast Guard spokesman said on Monday. The annual forum, set to open Tuesday in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, will also explore effective ways to promote cross-border cooperation and safeguard maritime peace and stability, spokesman Liu Dejun said.

Liu noted that the meeting has evolved over more than two decades, expanding its membership to include countries and regions across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and even some outside the region. Its institutional framework has grown increasingly robust, while cooperation has broadened into new areas.

The organizing of HACGAM meetings follows China's chairing of the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum last year — an expansion from a six-nation "North Pacific Plus" event to a broader pan-Asia-Pacific forum. Liu said China remains committed to promoting its vision of a "maritime community with a shared future" and its Global Security Initiative, aiming to build consensus on regional maritime security governance.

China hosted the HACGAM working-level meeting in May in Quanzhou, Fujian province, which provided technical support and outcomes that facilitated the opening of this week's high-level session.