c. Integrity of the maritime boundaries.
d. Prevention of piracy, armed robbery against ships, and terrorism.
e. Enforcement of living marine resource laws and treaties.
f. Enhancement of maritime safety and the environment.
3. The Heads of the agencies analyzed future threats and vulnerabilities in the above-mentioned fields of concern and acknowledged that the current maritime crimes were becoming increasingly vicious, ingenious and transnational by making use of various maritime activities and they were posing an imminent and huge threat at a global level. They also shared the view that it was indispensable for the agencies to work together in establishing and developing regional cooperation in addition to the existing bilateral and multilateral cooperation in order to tackle with these threats promptly and properly.
4. To this end, the Heads of the agencies shared the view that the agencies should work together within this framework to further establish and develop, within their competence, cooperative relationships in the common fields referred to in paragraph 2, as appropriate, toward the 21st century. They expressed the intention that they would hold the annual high level meeting in rotation and invite Canada and China to participate in the meeting.
5. Furthermore, as a direction of such regional cooperative relationships, the Heads of the agencies shared the view that they would explore, the possibility of designating the contact points for information exchange, conducting mutual visit of experts and joint seminars in order to exchange experiences, mutual visit of patrol vessels and combined exercise, and that it is beneficial for the agencies to further consider, the possibility of mutual boarding of law enforcement teams, combined law enforcement, and the establishment of joint monitoring system of suspicious vessels. They would also consider the expansion of the fields of cooperation (if necessary, other related agencies would be welcomed to join cooperation).
6. Recognizing the significance of information exchange, the Heads of the agencies acknowledged that it was practical that they would hold the next High Level Meeting in June 2001 in the Russian Federation to establish the framework for information exchange.
