By IANS,
New Delhi : Salman Khurshid, the newly-appointed foreign minister of India, will have his first major outing when he addresses ministers of 19 countries of the Indian Ocean rim in Gurgaon Friday.
The important conclave will focus on combating piracy, bolstering maritime security and boosting economic cooperation in the region.
Khurshid will chair the meeting of the 12th council of ministers of the 19-nation Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), putting him in spotlight barely days after taking charge.
On the sidelines of the meet, Khurshid is expected to meet at least half a dozen foreign ministers, including those of Iran, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
The IOR-ARC meeting will focus on peace and stability in the maritime domain, Sudhir Vyas, secretary (multilateral economic relations), in the external affairs ministry, told reporters here Tuesday.
The ministers will be discussing the economic well-being of the region, which is home to around two billion people and has collective GDP of $6.5 trillion, said Vyas.
Vyas said the IOR-ARC ministers would focus on six areas which were identified at the last meeting in Bangalore.
These include maritime security, trade and investment facilitation, fisheries, disaster risk and mitigation and academic cooperation and cultural exchanges and tourism.
The ministers will be looking to invigorate the 15-year-old organisation and finding a new name which can capture the growing strategic and economic importance of the Indian Ocean.
Among other important issues the ministerial meeting will be discussing is the US’ request to be admitted into the grouping as a dialogue partner.
It will require some deft diplomacy and consensus-building capacity for India, which is backing the US’ entry into the grouping.
With China stepping up its forays into the Indian Ocean region, the inclusion of the US, many countries feel, will bring in a much-needed balance.
Given its antipathy to the US, Iran will, however, be a hard nut to crack.
The 19 members of the IOR-ARC are Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, the Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, the UAE and Yemen.
Currently, IOR-ARC has five dialogue partners — China, Japan, Egypt, France and Britain.