New Delhi, Nov 17: India on Wednesday reaffirmed its strong commitment to strengthening the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the largest and pre-eminent organisation in the Indian Ocean Region, to promote peace, security and prosperity in the region as well as in the wider Indo-Pacific.
Minister of State for External Affairs (MoS), Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, addressing the 21st Annual Council of Ministers (COM) meeting of the IORA in virtual mode, also highlighted India’s contributions as coordinator of the IORA priority areas of Disaster Risk Management (DRM).
The IORA COM was held in a hybrid format in Dhaka and the Dhaka Communique was adopted at the end of the meeting.
During the Strategic Dialogue on the topic ‘Impact of COVID-19 and perspectives of economic recovery in the Indian Ocean Region’, providing an over view of India’s own experience of combating COVID-19 pandemic, MoS Singh underlined India’s assistance as the first responder in the region to various countries in the Indo-Pacific during the Covid pandemic and emphasised India’s readiness to share her experience and resources in the spirit of solidarity, an official statement said.
As a country committed to strengthening of IORA, India undertook various initiatives during the current year, including assisting the IORA Secretariat, conducting capacity building workshops in the areas ranging from Yoga and traditional medicines to remote sensing, UNCLOS and Ocean Data Management and leading the discussions on various issues under IORA, he pointed out.
MoS Singh congratulated Bangladesh on assuming the Chairship of IORA.
He welcomed the Russian Federation as the new Dialogue Partner of IORA. He also congratulated Ambassador Salman Al-Farisi of Indonesia on being selected as the next Secretary-General (SG) of IORA and expressed the hope that a full-time SG would help impart fresh energy and vision to the organisation.
The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is a dynamic inter-governmental organisation aimed at strengthening regional cooperation and sustainable development within the Indian Ocean region through its 23 Member States and 9 Dialogue Partners.
The Indian Ocean, as the third largest ocean woven together by trade routes, commands control of major sea-lanes carrying half of the world’s container ships, one third of the world’s bulk cargo traffic and two thirds of the world’s oil shipments, and remains an important lifeline to international trade and transport.
Home to nearly 2.7 billion people, Member States whose shores are washed by the Indian Ocean are rich in cultural diversity and richness in languages, religions, traditions, arts and cuisines.
IORA’s apex body is the Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) which meets annually. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) assumed the role of Chair since November 2019-November 2021, followed by Bangladesh November 2021-November 2023.
A committee of Senior Officials (CSO) meets twice a year to progress IORA’s agenda and consider recommendations by Working Groups and forums of officials, business and academics to implement policies and projects to improve the lives of people within the Indian Ocean Member States. UNI
India reaffirms strong commitment to strengthening IORA to promote peace, prosperity
