Context-The 19th IORA Council of Ministers (COM) meeting will be held on November 7 in Abu Dhabi with the theme of “Promoting a Shared Destiny and Path to Prosperity in the Indian Ocean.

About Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)

• The Indian Ocean Rim Association is an inter-governmental organisation which was established on 7 March 1997.
• The vision for IORA originated during a visit by late President Nelson Mandela of South Africa to India in 1995
• IORA’s apex body is the Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) which meets annually

The objectives of IORA are as follows:

• To promote sustainable growth and balanced development of the region and member states
• To focus on those areas of economic cooperation which provide maximum opportunities for development, shared interest and mutual benefits
• To promote liberalisation, remove impediments and lower barriers towards a freer and enhanced flow of goods, services, investment, and technology within the Indian Ocean rim.

Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) has identified six priority areas, namely:

• maritime security,
• trade and investment facilitation,
• fisheries management,
• disaster risk reduction,
• academic and scientific cooperation and
• tourism promotion and cultural exchanges.

Significance for india

• The meeting is important as two of India’s important partners, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, will take charge as the new chair and vice-chair of one of the largest regional maritime organisations for the duration of 2019-21.
• It is expected that the rise of more partner countries in managing the crucial maritime region that connects India with the energy suppliers in the Gulf will help in greater coordination in the Indian Ocean region.
• Over the last few years, India has been trying to emerge as the net provider of information in the Indian Ocean region and in that direction it created the Information Fusion Centre located in Gurugram to assist member countries of IOR with real time crisis information. 
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s first foreign visit focused on strengthening ties with Mozambique, an IOR member country, and reached agreements for hydrography and sharing of information on white shipping.
• The ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi will be preceded by a regional meeting on fisheries in Oman which is also expected to provide scope for greater cooperation with India.
• India seeks to share skills in the commercial fisheries sector with several IOR countries like Yemen and Somalia and ensure secure and sustainable fishing and movement in the region.

Significance of 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, the Indian Ocean remains an important lifeline to international trade and transport.
• Home to nearly 2.7 billion people, Member States whose shores are washed by the ocean are rich in cultural diversity and richness in languages, religions, traditions, arts and cuisines.
• They vary considerably in terms of their areas, populations and levels of economic development. They may also be divided into a number of sub-regions (Australasia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Eastern & Southern Africa), each with their own regional groupings (such as ASEAN, SAARC, GCC and SADC, to name a few). Despite such diversity and differences, these countries are bound together by the Indian Ocean.