A short interview with Gavin Birrel, from the New Zealand Ministry of Transport.
How do you see IORIS supporting the role of your organization?
It helps us overcome our geographic challenge: New Zealand and our South Pacific neighbours are a long way from anywhere else, and with our low populations and large maritime areas, we co-operate with each other to prevent or respond to shared problems. IORIS gives us secure communications with each other to coordinate that support.
What’s the biggest threat to maritime security in your region that can be addressed through cooperation?
Our approach to security is regional – it’s centred in the Boe Declaration, which is an expansive concept of security, it puts humans and the environment at the heart of our region’s security, so we would say climate change is our biggest maritime security threat for our region. We are seeing larger and more impacts on mariners and on our coasts. Co-operation is key to getting to increase successful outcomes for mariners. What’s essential for maintaining strong regional partnerships ?
I think it’s access to a quality information sharing tool, it makes it easy for our regional staffs to talk to each other.
What’s one challenge you hope we address during this meeting?
Can I choose geography again? New Zealand’s maritime area of interest is 1/12th of the globe and being able to engage with maritime security professionals from 40+ agencies from more than 25 countries at one meeting is invaluable for us. We get to contribute to, and benefit from collective experiences as we all step up to manage shared maritime challenges.

Nelson Delicieux Mihajaritiana, International Liaison Officer for Madagascar. IORIS is a communication tool for interagency cooperation. In our everyday task at the RCOC (Regional Coordination Operations Centre) we use IORIS to coordinate operations. We’ve multiple agencies not only from one country, but from many other countries. By sending a single message on IORIS, the RCOC is able to reach all the agencies participating in operation. What’s the biggest threat to maritime security in your region that can be addressed through cooperation? From our experience at the RCOC there is a hotspot of threats in our region (Indian Ocena Region). For some areas it can be Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, in another area it can be illegal migration, in another you may see all types of illegal trafficking, such as drugs or species trafficking. Personally, I think the major threat in our region is drug trafficking. You can fight it at the point of origin, or at the points of arrival, or also in the middle, but whatever strategy you will choose, you need the cooperation of everyone to be successful. What’s essential for maintaining strong regional partnerships? I believe that for maintaining a stronger regional partnership it is essential to have trust between the representatives of each state. For example, the regional maritime security architecture, of which the RCOC is parts, was created on the trust between the representatives of the States and the organisation. Now there are more states expressing the interest to join the framework. This is because they see that they can trust the organisation. I think to have a strong regional partnership it is essential to have trust between the representative of the states.

The Policy Board I am honoured to chair has a twofold mandate. On the one hand, it is to provide strategic recommendations and guidance to the IORIS Steering Committee in order for it to make decisions of strategic and political importance for the future development and management of the platform. On the other hand, the Policy Board aims to implement the decisions taken by the Steering Committee in what regards the operational, legal, and technical aspects of the future development of the IORIS platform.

The Operational Working Group’s mandate focuses on three main aspects: first, to ensure IORIS continues to meet the needs of maritime operations across the Indo-Pacific region. This includes developing and updating regional and national Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for IORIS use, which provide structured guidance to all users. Additionally, we conduct continuous reviews of the platform’s operational usage, identifying lessons learned and success stories to guide the platform’s ongoing improvements. By closely analysing these insights, we drive critical upgrades to the platform, as with the forthcoming Version 4, to keep it responsive to the evolving challenges in maritime security and information sharing. In essence, our mission within the OWG is to enhance IORIS’s functionality, streamline interoperability, and reinforce its role as a vital tool for maritime communications, coordination, and cooperation. 

The Legal Working Group’s mandate is to ensure that IORIS is used according to laws and regulations, including the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. We host the personal data of more than 4000 users, so we need to comply with EU regulations and ensure that we comply with each national regulation regarding privacy and data protection. The legal working group advise the IORIS Steering Committee and the Policy Board on legal issues. Another topic we are promoting is related to make a link between the legal representatives in each agency and the operative people and the operators so that the legal representatives can have a successful legal finish after the operative people conduct naval operations.

The Technical Working group is mandated to develop guidelines on maintaining and updating IORIS, including overseeing the development. This working group is composed of IT experts from each member authority. Observer authorities could also propose their specialists to contribute to the working group. The Technical Working Group will be tasked to conduct work and provide advice to the Steering Committee, among others, on topics such as technical support, frontline helpdesk, feedback from operational users on ergonomics and improvements, data and awareness, for example, AIS, satellite services, coastal applications interoperability and its relationship with other MDA systems, and sovereignty, including the maintenance of the Microsoft Azure architecture, other cloud infrastructures, standalone and local versions of IORIS, national mapping, libraries and open-source products. Unless otherwise agreed, a CRIMARIO representative will chair the Technical Working Group with the support of the host authority representative. The Technical Working Group shall work mainly through video teleconferencing (VTC), the forum on the Restricted Area of the IORIS website, or written correspondence and may meet physically once a year or if necessary to agree on the final product’s deliverables before being proposed for endorsement to the Steering Committee or Policy Board.

 Much is said about the importance of exchanging information at the national and regional level, as no organisation or entity is able to tackle maritime threats and challenges alone. Indeed, it is no longer a question of why we should exchange information but how we should exchange information. To deal with intricate situations at sea, we need to integrated and secure information exchange systems and IORIS was designed to be precisely that system. IORIS is a neutral, reliable and secure user friendly platform offering maritime operation and information centres with a unique capability to be able to communicate and exchange operational information on a diverse range of challenges in real-time. IORIS also offers limited satellite services; it connects domestic and international stakeholders to address the evolving challenges manifesting within the maritime domain; the platform does not replace or replicate any other systems but complements and enhances existing platforms; it is web-based implying that it can be used by vessels at sea; it is secure using a cloud hosting environments that ensures data integrity while affording secure accessibility to authorised users; it’s sustainable also because the European Union is prepared to continue funding its running costs in the longer term, if partners commit to use the platform; but, most importantly, IORIS is regionally governed: in fact just last May the IORIS Steering Committee was established and this is now composed of IORIS users who, together with CRIMARIO, will define the future policy and developments of the system. The rapid growth of the IORIS community over the last year, with over 50 civilian and military organisations now using the platform daily in over 25 countries, is in itself a true testimony of the success of the platform, and we now look forward to expanding its use to other communities including the maritime industry. Thank you for your attention.

Q. 1 Why and how can IORIS support national and regional cooperation? “I think IORIS can support national and regional cooperation by providing a platform for information sharing and serve as a legal basis for action plans and source of evidence on filing cases. “

Q. 2 How do you see the future role of the National Coast Watch Centre (NCWC) in managing the IORIS platform? “I see NCWC as the Command Centre here in the Philippines; they are going to be an administrator and the national coordinating body of IORIS.”

“IORIS supports maritime security through information sharing and collaboration. One country’s outgoing threat is another country’s incoming threat, and it’s important that countries come together, collaborate and share information. If you can stop the threat as far offshore as possible, that’s exceptionally important. Ideally you want to stop the threat at the source. Working collaboratively is the foundation for any good Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) system. It’s really important that we transition from purely dots on a chart to situational understanding. This allows decision makers to make those critical decisions when it’s really important.”

“The advantages and benefits of IORIS Information sharing are well established and well known, and its importance in controlling continues to spread across the region. But in terms of IUU fishing, this is a relatively new capability that the system has introduced, enabling the countries to share information that will enable them to combat IUU fishing within their economic zones. The importance of this, in the blue economy, will undoubtedly show them how they can improve to bring the resources back to the country and not export them to unnecessary and foreign users.”