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Indian Ocean Group Formation
Response from the Times of India, 3 May 1997, Reported by Prakash Nanda
Yet another international organisation, with India as a key member, will be formally launched by 14 countries belonging to three continents of Asia, Africa and Australia when their foreign ministers meet at Mauritius between March 5 and 7. With the avowed goal of facilitating regional cooperation, this new organisation will be called Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC).
India, along with Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, Oman and Kenya, had been working towards the establishment of IORARC for the last two years. In the mean time, seven other countries- Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Yemen, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar - joined the endeavour.
Apparently, two ideas have strongly influenced the IORARC. One is the realisation that the Indian Ocean is the only ocean not to have any economic grouping like NAFTA, ASEAN and APEC at a time when international relations are increasingly becoming ocean-centric. In that sense, the IORARC will be a bridgehead between Africa, Asia and Australia so as to take the present level of intra-trade and investment of 20 percent to much higher levels, given the natural resource endowment, large population base and complementary markets. The idea is to focus on the area trade liberalisation, investment promotion, infrastructural development, science and technology, tourism and human resource development
The other idea as the official put it, was "the rediscovery of the littoral economic, social and cultural community that existed in the Indian Ocean for centuries. The IORARC will help us rediscovering our past, a past of cooperation not only in economic terms but also in sociological terms." His emphasis was on the fact that the IORARC would be an organisation involving multi-races, ranging from the most developed ones in Australia to the poorest one in Africa.
Going by its charter, the IORARC will have four main features. First is that the highest decision-making body of the organisation will be the ministerial council of the foreign ministers who will be meeting at least once every two years. Secondly, it will have a unique three-pronged approach in working in the sense that it involves a coordinated endeavour of officials academicians and businessmen of the member countries. The point is that officials alone will not be responsible for its functioning.
Thirdly, though the IORARC aims to be "universal", involving all the Indian Ocean countries, the membership will be restricted to begin with. The underlying assumption is that there should be "a core group approach" for the sake of viability and efficiency. The objective is to realise goals "in a phased manner."
Fourthly, all cooperative endeavours will be voluntary in nature. In fact, 10 such ventures have already been identified, with India responsible for four of them.