IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos has welcomed the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution authorizing a series of decisive measures to combat acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels off the coast of . Under the terms of resolution 1816 (2008), which was adopted unanimously, the Security Council decided that, following receipt of a letter from Somalia to the President of the UN Security Council giving the consent of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), States co-operating with the TFG would be allowed, for a period of six months, to enter the country's territorial waters and use "all necessary means" to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, in a manner consistent with relevant provisions of international law.
