Proliferation Security Initiative Ship Boarding Agreement Signed with Liberia

The United States and Liberia signed an agreement on Wednesday, February 11, on ship boarding in support of the Proliferation Security Initiative, a Presidential initiative announced last May. The boarding agreement provides authority on a bilateral basis to board sea vessels suspected of carrying illicit shipments of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, or related materials. This is a tangible example of nonproliferation cooperation, which President Bush advocated in his speech yesterday at National Defense University. Liberia has the world’s second largest ship registry and this agreement sends a strong signal to proliferators that the United States and Liberia will not allow the use of their vessels for the transport or transfer of items of proliferation concern. The conclusion of this ship boarding agreement is an important step in further operationalizing the Proliferation Security Initiative and strengthening the mechanisms that we have at our disposal to interdict suspect weapons of mass destruction-related cargoes. The ship boarding agreement is modeled after similar arrangements that exist in the counter-narcotics arena.

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