IORA expertise for Bangladesh

The three-day March 20-22 international conference on potential of the Indian Ocean Rim countries at Bhubenswar, Orissa had occasioned an intense expert-level deliberations on different issues ranging  from exploiting blue economies to dealing with security issues. Bangladesh is a prominent member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) with its foreign secretary taking part in deliberations on 'Blue Economy' this time. He was a moderator in the session also joined by this writer as a resource-person.
The international conference was jointly organised by two leading think-tanks  the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), Delhi and the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, Kolkata, fully equipped with expertise necessary for making in-depth studies on different burning issues that merit immediate attention.
That the new Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to promote regional cooperation in the Indian Ocean Rim countries was amply evident from the presence at the conference of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who inaugurated it, expressing Delhi's firm commitment to develop the IORA as an effective engine of regional growth.
Sushma Swaraj delved deep into the importance of the region. There is a growing body of evidence to show for example that East Africa had flourishing trade ties with India long before Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, she said.  
Sushma went on: "Communication between the two regions was facilitated by the monsoon trade winds. India's trade, including spices, cotton and cotton-made fabrics, was reaching countries in far areas of Africa and South East Asia as well as Europe. India's ancient trade linkages including in the cotton trade with the countries of the Indian Ocean Region and beyond could well be a subject of a standalone in-depth study."
India, during the Bhubenswar conference, also made it clear that it is keen to build closer cooperation in the maritime domain, regularise bilateral maritime exercises and strengthen dialogues between the navies and the Coast Guards with all littoral countries in the Indian Ocean Region.
As experts felt during their participation in the conference, the IORA could function as an effective regional body to respond effectively to the needs and enhance individual and collective capacities of member-states to tackle contemporary challenges of sustainable and balanced economic growth, development and common maritime domain. In fact, the IORA could emerge as an effective multilateral platform that facilitates realisation of untapped opportunities for prosperity, peace and development of the region. Needed badly is a summit meeting of the heads of state and government of IORA member-states to give the platform a big push.  
In fact, the growing number of membership and the number of dialogue partners is a testimony to the growing salience of the Indian Ocean and IORA as the apex body in the region. The IORA members are also taking a number of initiatives to address the challenges in the way of further deepening of trade and economic ties among themselves.
What was increasingly felt during the conference is that the IORA needs building of its muscles to grow  as a strong platform to address issues its member-states are confronted with: exploiting seas including the Bay of Bengal, tapping energy resources for their mutual benefit and dealing with security issues together.    
Needless to mention here, the Indian Ocean is of strategic importance to all the IORA member-countries. This is because it carries one half of the world's container shipments, one-third of the bulk cargo traffic and two-thirds of the oil shipments, though three-fourths of this traffic goes to other regions of the world. Ninety per cent of trade by volume and 90 per cent of oil imports take place through seas. The region has a long coastline of 7,500 km, 1,200 islands and a 2.4 million square kilometres of Exclusive Economic Zone.
It is time for all the member-states, especially India having huge resources, to assume the leadership of the IORA so that it could be built on a strong footing to deal with the emerging issues. Moreover, India has a rich repository of scientists and experts who can help transfer their ideas and skills to their counterparts in Bangladesh and other member-states. As Bangladesh has of late accorded priority to exploit the Bay of Bengal following peaceful resolution of maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar, the IORA can help the country with scientific guidelines to do it on its own.   
Bangladesh is placed in the vast Indian Ocean region that hosts over 40 states and nearly 40 per cent of world population. It is vast and diverse, home to great cultures and holds immense opportunities for the future.
The Bhubenswar conference has correctly identified the need for strengthening the IORA as it, in its declaration, called for holding the first summit level meeting in order to give a shot in the arm of the Association. The Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC), which is now known as Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) formed in 1997, by Australia, India, Mauritius, Oman, Singapore and South Africa could provide an ideal platform. The Association was established with the primary focus on economic cooperation, to promote sustained growth and balanced development of the region and its member states and create a common ground for regional economic cooperation.
Happily, such a cooperation is already taking place as India has agreed to help repatriate Bangladeshi nationals, trapped and stranded in Yemen by its ships being sent to rescue its own nationals. A full-fledged IORA under the present leadership of Ambassador K V Bhagirath as its Secretary General can deal with such common problems in a spirit of regional amity and friendship. Bhagirath had told this scribe at Gurgaon of New Delhi during the foreign ministerial meeting of the IOR-ARC three years ago that if fully developed, his organisation has the necessary capability to deal with multifarious issues being faced by its member-states like Bangladesh.
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