The Indian Ocean IS the world’s third largest ocean covering approximately 20 per cent of the water on the earth’s surface and is named after the geographic location of India. It has an area of 7,35,56,000 square km (2,83,50,000 sq miles), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Many small islands are located on the rim which also has island nations like Madagascar (the world’s fourth largest island), Reunion Island, Comoros, Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. The world’s earliest civilisations in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and the Indian subcontinent (beginning with the Indus Valley civilisation) developed around the Indian Ocean. Civilisations also arose in Persia and later in South East Asia. Important trade routes for silk and spice were blocked by the Ottoman Empire with the fall of the Byzantine Empire. This resulted in exploring alternative routes and a new sea route around Africa was discovered.

Economic potential

The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the America. It helps in meeting the energy needs of many countries by transporting petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and Western Australia. The Indian Ocean is a great source of oil, wealth and heavy minerals. It is estimated that 40 per cent of the world’s offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Sand on the beach is rich with heavy minerals and is exploited by countries like India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. It carries half of the world’s container ships, one-third of the bulk cargo traffic and two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments. The Indian Ocean Rim countries have a combined population close to two billion, thus making it a massive market. The region is rich in precious minerals and metals, and abundant marine resources. It has plenty of agricultural output and human resources which are technologically developed. Many countries of the region like China and India are becoming globally competitive. There are a number of sub-regions like Southern and Eastern Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea; South Asia, South East Asia, and Australasia. It also includes a number of regional organisations, such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Southern African Development Community (SADEC). For many centuries, the countries and the people in the Indian Ocean region have been informally integrated in trade. The decolonisation of the region ended British control but superpower rivalry in the region escalated due to its strategic importance. However, the leaders of the region decided that to overcome superpower rivalry it was prudent to go back to the historical past and develop a shared identity by establishing an ocean-centric regional cooperative group which would serve as a bridgehead between Africa, Asia, and Australasia. Due to the lucrative trade, piracy has raised its ugly head in the Indian Ocean region and especially off the Somali coast which has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War.

India vs China

The Indian Ocean has developed into a new area of India-China conflict. As soon as India announced that it will go ahead with its decision to carry out oil exploration in South China Sea jointly with Vietnam; China stated that it would expand its exploration of 10,000 sq km of seabed in southwest Indian Ocean as part of their 2011-15 oceanic development policy. Chinese state-run media has quoted China’s head of oceanic development Liu Cigui as saying, “We will expand the depths and scope of oceanic research and improve our understanding of the ocean, with special focus on the polar regions and deep sea environments.”

India’s Naval Hydrography Department has done extensive work, mapping the bottom of the Indian Ocean, which would help India’s mariners and defence and strategic planners. When the International Seabed Authority (ISA) allowed exploration of polymetallic sulphides by China Ocean Minerals Resources Research and Development Association, it shook India’s planners as they had not done any exploration in spite of receiving exploratory rights by the ISA for a large number of blocks. As a result, some of these blocks had to be surrendered but India still retains some blocks. To counter China’s swift moves into the Indian Ocean, India has released its report on survey of seabeds by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) which indicated the presence of heavy deposits of ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite, monazite and garnet off the east coast, as well as off Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The GSI has also conducted reconnaissance surveys to identify potential areas for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion off Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The beginning of the Rim Association

During his visit to India in 1995, President Nelson Mandela stated that “the natural urge of the facts of history and geography… should broaden itself to include the concept of an Indian Ocean Rim for socio-economic cooperation and other peaceful endeavours. Recent changes in the international system demand that the countries of the Indian Ocean shall become a single platform. “Soon after in March 1995, the Mauritius Government convened a meeting to discuss the concept of improving the economic cooperation among countries of the Indian Ocean Rim. Representatives from Australia, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Oman, Singapore and South Africa attended the meeting. These countries were later on referred to as the “core group states” or M-7. As a result of the meeting, a joint statement was issued in which it was stated that they had agreed on “principles of open regionalism and inclusivity of membership, with the objectives of trade liberalisation and promoting trade cooperation. The activities would focus on trade facilitation, promotion and liberalisation, investment promotion and economic cooperation”.

A tripartite working group, consisting of representatives from the government, academic and private sector, met in Mauritius in August 1995 and decided to create a track two process which would be complementary to an inter-governmental movement. A charter was finalised in September 1996 for the creation of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) and expanded the membership to include Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique which was called the M-14.The IORARC was formally launched at the first ministerial meeting in Mauritius on March 6 and 7, 1997; adopted the IOR-ARC Charter and determined a number of administrative and procedural matters. The second biennial Council of Ministers meeting was held in Maputo, Mozambique in March 1999 in which the Ministers agreed to a realistic, result-oriented trade and investment agenda based on trade facilitation, trade liberalisation, and economic and technical cooperation. To further streamline the process, a Working Group on Trade and Investment (WGTI) was established. Bangladesh, Iran, Seychelles, Thailand and the UAE were invited to join the association. It was also decided that Egypt and Japan would be invited to participate as dialogue partners.

An extraordinary meeting of the IORARC Ministerial Council took place in Muscat, Oman, in January 2000, during which the new members and the dialogue partners were formally welcomed. WGTI also met for the first time. During the meeting, the Ministers adopted a trade and investment plan of action, which included agreement to compile compendia on customs regimes, quarantine and food inspection and investment regimes, to be completed before the next ministerial level meeting at Oman in April 2001. The meeting also approved applications for dialogue partner status from China and the UK.

Currently, it has 18 members to include Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Seychelles, which left the organisation in 2003, re-joined on November 15 to become the 19th member of IOR-ARC. The association also has five dialogue partners—Egypt, Japan, China, Britain and France—and two observers—Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation and Indian Ocean Research Group.

Objectives

The objectives of IOR-ARC are as follows:

• To promote sustainable growth and balanced development of the region and member states.
• To focus on those areas of economic cooperation which provide maximum opportunities for development, shared interest and mutual benefits.
• To promote liberalisation, remove impediments and lower barriers towards a freer and enhanced flow of goods, services, investment and technology within the Indian Ocean Rim.