Türkiye to extend Gulf of Aden mission amid Red Sea tensions

The Turkish naval staff deployed to the Gulf of Aden, Somali territorial waters and the Arabian Sea will see their mandate end on February 10, but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on January 15 sent a motion to extend the mandate for another year to the Turkish Parliament, which will likely ratify the motion.

If Parliament greenlights it, it will be the 14th extension to the mandate. The motion refers to United Nations Security Council resolutions dating back to 2008 as the basis of troop mandate. The resolutions were adopted against piracy and related crimes affecting international vessels sailing in the said region. On Feb. 10, 2009, the Turkish Parliament issued the first approval for deploying Turkish troops to the area. The motion says the deployment provides security for Turkish-flagged vessels and commercial vessels linked to Türkiye and contributes to joint operations by other countries against sea piracy and maritime terrorism. The motion also facilitates the delivery of humanitarian relief to the said areas. The Presidency said in the motion that it also helped the Turkish army's naval components to gain regional experience and supported national policies regarding the relevant countries while bolstering Türkiye's regional and international role within the UN system and its "visibility" in the international community, Daily Sabah reports.

The Gulf of Aden, near Yemen and close to the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the world's fourth-biggest chokepoint for oil transit, is a strategic energy route for Middle Eastern crude oil. The Arabian Sea and Somalia are adjacent to the Gulf and the strait.

Tension surged in the Middle East, the region that hosts the majority of global oil resources, after US and British warplanes last week carried out airstrikes in the Yemeni cities of Sanaa, Hudaydah and Taiz in response to the Houthis' ongoing attacks on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. Expressing his views on the attacks, US President Joe Biden stated that they would not hesitate to take further measures, if necessary, to protect the US people and the free flow of international trade. The US military said that the Houthis have carried out 27 attacks in the Red Sea since November 19, 2023.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron defended the action to strike Yemen, commenting that the UK is "prepared to back our words with actions" against the Houthis. In response, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen said they would continue their military operations against Israel and prevent Israeli ships from passing through the Red Sea, where the world's largest oil trade occurs. The decision by numerous shipping companies to cease operations has led to the suspension of energy supplies via the Red Sea route and an increase in the anticipation of a global supply chain crisis, both of which are driving up oil prices.

The motion says Türkiye attached importance to developing international cooperation against maritime piracy, always endorsed international efforts in this field and actively contributed to related work by the UN, NATO, the European Union and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).