Explanation:

The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, commonly known as IONS, is a forum to increase maritime cooperation among the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region. The forum helps to preserve peaceful relations between nations, and thus is critical to building an effective maritime security architecture in the Indian Ocean Region and is also fundamental to our collective prosperity.
• Members
o South Asian Littorals: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and United Kingdom (British Indian Ocean Territory)
o West Asian Littorals: Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates
o East African Littorals: France (Reunion), Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania.
o South East Asian and Australian Littorals: Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
• Observers
o China, Germany, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Russia and Spain.