The 23rd Council of Ministers (COM) Meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) was held in Colombo on 11 October. Sri Lanka took over the Chair of the IORA from Bangladesh and will be in charge till 2025. India will be the Vice-Chair during this period. The theme of the Meeting was: Strengthening Regional Architecture: Reinforcing Indian Ocean Identity.” This is significant because the Indian Ocean has to see itself as a distinct geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic entity. For that, it has to have an identity and an appropriate architecture to sustain that identity. Currently, there are 23 Member States in IORA. They are Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France/Reunion, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
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