U.S. Spearheads Global Maritime Security and Sanctions Enforcement Conference

The Department of State, the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa, and the Cote d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Transport co-hosted the Global Maritime Security and Sanctions Enforcement Conference in Abidjan on July 16-17, 2025. The event included global maritime industry leaders from 25 countries to strengthen due diligence practices, and enhance enforcement of sanctions to prevent Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and other rogue regimes from exploiting commercial maritime supply chains to advance proliferation activities.

This conference enabled ship registries, maritime authorities, international organizations, and global coalitions, including the Registry Information Sharing Compact (RISC), to share challenges, lessons learned, and best practices to improve U.S sanctions enforcement globally, prevent illicit maritime activity that threatens U.S. interests, and ultimately increase global maritime security.

Iran continues to use the commercial shipping industry to transport proliferation-related items and export oil to generate revenue for its global malign activities. Similarly, the DPRK circumvents U.S. and UN sanctions through the export of coal and iron ore to generate revenue to support the development of its WMD and ballistic missile programs. The United States is committed to combatting maritime sanctions evasion activities and illicit maritime trade.