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Sri Lanka to head Indian Ocean body for two years
View(s):Sri Lanka is to assume the chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) next Wednesday following a high-level meeting of the Council. More than a dozen member states, represented by both foreign ministers and senior ministerial delegations, will attend the meeting.
Foreign Minister Ali Sabry will chair the Council when the current chair, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen, hands over the chairmanship.
Foreign ministers or senior ministers of IORA members and Dialogue Partners will arrive in Sri Lanka next week for the 23rd IORA Council of Ministers, which Sri Lanka is hosting on Wednesday in Colombo.
The Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo will see the participation of sixteen Ministers. They include Bangladesh Foreign Ministers of A.K. Abdul Momen, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Maneesh Gobin (Mauritius), Dato Seri Diraja Zambry Abdul Kadir (Malaysia) and Dr (Mrs) Naledi Pandor of South Africa.
Also attending will be ministers and senior-level officials from Australia, Comoros, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, the Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen (member countries). Dialouge Partners China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America will also be represented.
The Council of Ministers is the highest decision-making body of IORA.
The Council will be preceded by the 25th meeting of the Committee of IORA Senior Officials (October 9–10), which will be chaired by Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane.
The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), established in 1997, is an intergovernmental organisation of states on the rim of the Indian Ocean. Its membership spans Africa, West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
IORA’s membership has expanded to 23 states and 11 dialogue partners. Sri Lanka will assume the chairmanship of IORA from 2023 to 2025 at the 23rd Council of Ministers’ Meeting.
The ministers will deliberate on ways to cooperate in the six priority areas identified by the association. They include trade and investment; maritime safety and security; fisheries management; disaster risk management; and the blue economy, among others, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
They will be guided by recommendations to be made by the 25th Committee of IORA Senior Officials.
The visiting ministers will also make a collective call on President Ranil Wickremesinghe and hold bilateral discussions with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry and other ministers during their stay in Sri Lanka, according to the ministry.
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