July 14, 2010 -- President James Michel has met with Margaret Vogt, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to the Symposium on Piracy, who is also the Deputy Special Representative  of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia.

President Michel said that the United Nations has an important role to play in ensuring the stability of the Indian Ocean region and commended the work of the UN in Somalia as well as the efforts to boost capacity-building in Seychelles.

" Seychelles is pleased with the level of commitment of the United Nations to addressing the problem of Somali piracy, as well as considering the effects of this problem on Small Island Developing States, and principally Seychelles," said President Michel.

President Michel and Margaret Vogt also discussed ways in which the United Nations can aid Seychelles in improving the infrastructure and systems for the incarceration and prosecution of pirates.

" We commend the initiative that the Seychelles is taking to deal with this very difficult problem. We acknowledge the tremendous impact of this problem on Seychelles ... the economic impact, the losses in terms of GDP, is a major one... the social impact is very great," said Margaret Vogt.

Mrs. Vogt sad that the UN would consider several options in the fight against piracy, and that this would include the development of the capacity of the countries of the region to tackle the piracy problem.

" It is a very difficult problem. Nobody would have thought a year ago that you would have pirates over a thousand nautical miles from the coast of Somalia... the international mechanism that has been put into place to intercept them, is already working," said the UN Deputy Special Representative.