For over a year, the Yemeni Houthi movement has carried out missile and drone attacks on civilian shipping in and around the Red Sea. As a result, traffic through the Suez Canal, one of the most critical arteries of global trade, has significantly decreased. Many shipping companies now take the lengthy detour around southern Africa instead.

This week, the UN Security Council, where Denmark has been a member since 1 January 2025, once again called for an immediate end to these attacks.

“It is incredibly important that the international community unites to stop the Houthis’ unacceptable attacks on peaceful merchant vessels. It is both encouraging and fitting that Denmark, as a major maritime nation, is also working within the UN Security Council to halt these attacks and uphold the right to free navigation, which is essential for global trade,” said Anne H. Steffensen, CEO of Danish Shipping.

It is also positive that the UN Security Council, in its resolution, highlights the need for the release of the 25 crew members who have been held hostage in Yemen since the hijacking of the Galaxy Leader in November 2023.

Denmark’s UN Ambassador, Christina Markus Lassen, stated the following in her remarks during the discussion of the resolution:

“We condemn the Houthis’ continued attacks on international merchant vessels in the Red Sea as well as their continued unjustifiable detention of the Galaxy Leader and its 25 crew members. And we demand their immediate release.

Any attempt to disrupt the freedom of navigation upon which international commerce and development rests is unacceptable and may constitute a violation of international law.”