New Delhi: India participated in the 22nd Council of Ministers (COM) meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) held at Dhaka, Bangladesh on Thursday. The Indian delegation was led by Minister of State External Affairs (MoS), Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
IORA is the largest and pre-eminent organization in the Indian Ocean Region with 23 Members and 10 Dialogue Partners. MoS, in his remarks, reaffirmed India’s strong commitment to strengthening IORA to promote peace, security, and prosperity in IOR as well as in the wider Indo-Pacific.
He highlighted India’s contributions as coordinator of the IORA priority areas of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Science, Technology & Innovation towards capacity building, and strengthening of the IORA Secretariat.
India is setting up an eOffice at the IORA Secretariat. MoS also announced the provision of e-subscription by India to Mahatma Gandhi Library at IORA Secretariat. In the face of current global challenges to our climate, food, and energy security, Minister highlighted our initiatives of LiFE – Lifestyle for Environment and International Year of Millet in 2023.
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The COM adopted the ‘IORA’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific' (IOIP) which would guide the enhancement of IORA's engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. India led the process of development of the VOIP. Dhaka Communique was adopted as the Outcome Document of the 22nd COM Meeting.
The Ministers also endorsed India’s candidature for IORA Vice-Chair for the period 2023-25 by consensus. Tomorrow the Ministers would have a joint call on the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.
On the sidelines of IORA COM, MOS had a bilateral meeting with the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Somalia, Ali Mohamed Omar where the two sides discussed various bilateral and multilateral matters.
Before this meeting, the IORA Senior Officials reviewed the entire range of IORA’s ongoing and future work and activities at the 24th IORA Committee of Senior Officials’ meeting held on 22-23 November 2022.
