International
MOS Rajkumar Ranjan Singh Attends Meeting on Indian Ocean, India to Become IORA Vice Chair from 2023-25
Minister of State for External Affairs Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday to attend the 22nd meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), being hosted in Bangladesh’s capital city. High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma welcomed Dr. Singh on his arrival in Dhaka.
IORA is an inter-governmental organisation that aims to promote sustained growth and balanced development within the Indian Ocean region. Established on 7th March 1997, Council of Ministers (COM) is its apex body that meets annually while the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) meets twice a year to review progress on its agenda and consider recommendations to implement policies and projects.
The 22nd IORA COM meeting Chaired by Bangladesh was concluded on Thursday, 24th November in Dhaka. The Council of Ministers Meeting was preceded by the 24th Meeting of the CSO held on 22nd-23rd November. The 23 Member States of IORA and 10 Dialogue Partners joined the Ministerial and Senior Official Meetings.
MOS Ranjan Singh spoke on a range of matters concerning the Indian Ocean region. He highlighted India’s Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative at the COM meeting, talking about the importance India’s partners and the region holds in its foreign policy matters. The MOS also met with State Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia on the sidelines of the IORA meeting. They discussed various avenues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
After the conclusion of the IORA meeting, MOS Ranjan Singh tweeted at the success of the meeting, “Expressed my appreciation to all IORA Member States for the adoption of IORA Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and for endorsing India as Vice Chair of IORA for 2023-25. We look forward working together to take IORA from strength to strength.”
With India’s continued focus on the Indian Ocean region, its future aspirations in the region along with its partners will reach new heights and strengthen with time.
