India’s External Affairs Minister, Mr Salman Khurshid is in Perth to hand over the chair of Indian Ocean Region Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) to Australia who will be the Chair from November 1st onwards. Indonesia will take over as the Vice Chair from Australia. This is a 20-member organisation which has littoral countries of the Indian Ocean who are likely to discuss a range of issues.
One of the things on the agenda is the name of this organization as per Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson. “Other issues are: cooperation with the UN and specialised agencies, how should we engage dialogue partners more, the secretariat of the organisation and mechanisms and ways to strengthen it, and also an initiative that we lay great store on and that is university mobility in the Indian Ocean region universities. We expect that at the conclusion of this meeting in Perth there will be of course the usual communiqué. Also Australia is proposing a Declaration of Perth Principles for the Peaceful and Sustainable Use of the Indian Ocean and its Resources,” said the media briefing by the Spokesperson.
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