The QUALSHIP 21 program (United States Coast Guard's Quality Shipping for 21st Century Program) helps to secure and improve shipping by identifying high-quality ships and thereby promoting ship quality standards. In addition to Denmark, 27 countries have received the QUALSHIP 21 certificate.

Andreas Nordseth, Director General of the Danish Maritime Authority:

I am pleased that Danish ships continue to live up to the highest standards when it comes to safety. Danish shipping is quality shipping.

To receive the QUALSHIP 21 certificate, a country's ships must meet a number of requirements. For instance, the proportion of a flag's detained ships over a 3-year period must be less than 1%. Only 1 Danish ship has been detained in the past 3-year period (0,17%).

QUALSHIP 21 covers port state controls in the United States in the same way as the Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU cover Europe and Asia. Denmark also ranks at the top of the so-called Whitelists of Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU.