JEDDAH — Gen. Awad Bin Eid Al-Balawi, director general of the Border Guard, on Tuesday graced the opening ceremony of the 10th International Training of Trainers Course on combating insecurities in maritime domain. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Interior, represented in the General Directorate of Border Guard at Muhammed Bin Naif Academy for Maritime Science and Security Studies in Jeddah in cooperation with International Maritime Organization (IMO). Gen. Al-Balawi extended sincere gratitude to the government of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman for their immense support to regional and international efforts to enhance the strategic and executive measures of maritime security and the safety of navigation and shipping that lead to a boom in the world economy. The director general expressed his gratitude to the minister of interior for his sustainable and ongoing support to enhance these efforts and thanked the IMO confirming the immense interest to cooperate and contribute effectively in all issues leading to the prevailing security and peace and to achieve welfare and prosperity for all the people. Al-Balawi stated that Saudi Border Guard organized nine international training course, two workshops and a high ministerial conference that popped out of Jeddah Amendments 2017. He added that a total of 199 trainees from 28 countries including DCoC, West and Central Africa "Yaoundé Code of Conduct". and ReCAAP as a number of brotherly and friendly states. Stressing that organizing this training course is an ongoing partnership cooperation approach with IMO to consolidate capacity-building efforts and enhance sharing experiences as this course is aimed at developing the participant's knowledge unifying their concepts and enhance their skills in maritime security domain indicating that the ministry of interior represented in Saudi Border Guard shall continue organizing such international courses and workshops for DCoC states within the frameworks of Jeddah amendments, 2017. Border Guard Spokesman Lt. Col. Misfer Ghanam Al-Quraini said that there are 25 trainees from 16 signatory states of Jeddah Amendments to the Code of Conduct 2017 to combat transnational organized crime, in addition to a trainee from Bahrain and one trainee from the Bangladesh.
