The Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Panama in Washington D.C., Mario Morales López, and the CEO of the Liberian Registry, Alfonso Castillero, participated in the launch of the shared database of the Registries Information Sharing Compact (RISC).
This database was presented to the Office of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN) of the U.S. Department of State, represented by Gonzalo Suárez, Deputy Assistant Secretary of that office.
Panama is a founding member of this compact along with the registries of Liberia and the Marshall Islands, which was signed on August 14, 2019. The RISC represents a step forward in enforcing sanctions against vessels engaging in behavior contrary to the interests of the international maritime community.
Currently, RISC is composed of the registries of Palau, Honduras, St. Kitts and Nevis, Comoros, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Moldova, and Belize, in addition to its three founding members.
The establishment of this database by the RISC member registries aims to reduce flag-hopping operations of vessels involved in sanction evasion activities.
Under this international agreement, when a flag registry begins a sanction process against a vessel, cancels a registration, or denies the registration of a vessel due to a sanctionable activity, that office will immediately notify the other members of the details of the vessel. A description of the sanctionable activity will also be included to share the identity of vessels, companies, or groups engaging in these illicit practices.
Since Panama signed this compact, it has reported over 135 vessels. The Panamanian Registry, as part of its due diligence process, includes a review of this database to ensure that it does not accept under its flag vessels linked to illicit activities or suspected of sanctions violations, which are undergoing cancellation processes within other RISC member registries.