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White House releases National Maritime Domain Awareness Plan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The National Maritime Domain Awareness Plan, which promotes maritime security and prosperity through better governance, has been released, U.S. officials said.

"Notably, 90 percent of the world's commerce moves by sea, making maritime security essential to the global supply chain and international trade," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said of the plan in a statement.

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"Using a whole-of-nation approach, at minimal cost, [the plan] promotes favorable conditions for integrating and sharing information, including intelligence, to better inform decisions affecting the security, safety, economy and environment of the United States and the global maritime commons," she said.

The plan merges the National Plan to Achieve Maritime Domain Awareness and the Global Maritime Intelligence Integration Plan, both of which were published in 2005, Hayden said.

"The deliberate misuse of the maritime domain to commit harmful, hostile, or unlawful acts, including those against the maritime transportation system, remains an enduring threat to the safety and security of the American people, to wider U.S. national security interests, and to the interests of our international allies and private sector partners," the plan's executive summary said.

The plan promotes sustaining favorable conditions for global maritime security and prosperity through effective understanding of the maritime domain and by improving shared-information capabilities from public and private sectors.

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It promotes risk management planning that enables the entire global maritime community to develop a shared understanding of potential risks and opportunities, the report said.

"Ultimately, the backbone of protecting the United States, its allies and private-sector partners from maritime threats will be an interactive, layered structure of cooperating agencies and entities," the report said. "MDA is a critical link to achieving this vision through timely delivery of required information resulting in decision superiority."

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