The Indian Navy hopes that the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), the only multinational construct that has succeeded in the 21st century, would gradually grow into a very big medium for addressing even conflicts within the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), according to Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of India’s Southern Naval Command based in Kochi.
As the 10th anniversary special edition of IONS, with 24 member-countries and eight observers, is set to get under way in the city on November 13, Vice Admiral Chawla told The Hindu that the immediate task before the forum would be to draw up a list of common priorities to act on.
“While it is not a difficult thing to construct, such a list does not exist in the maritime world. It is not there even on the Pacific, in the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS).
Common interest
“If you look at it, there are many areas of common interest such as combating global warming, pollution of the oceans, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, human trafficking, drug running, search and rescue (SAR) and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) — themes of common interest that do not touch on sensitive areas with national and security implications. Once we have the list, we can probably start working on the strategy to implement that,” he said.
Indian vision
Describing the IONS as an Indian vision that had become international, he said its success stemmed from the fact that Indian Navy, which created it, chose not to monopolise it. “The forum has gradually built up its agenda and has a charter now. It has three main working groups on HADR, maritime domain awareness and maritime security. Most importantly, its chairmanship is on rotation and Iran is chairing it at present. So, everyone has a stake in it. There’s been progress on the HADR front and on the SAR front, we have been able to hold joint exercises mainly to formulate procedures.”
Unlike the Pacific or the North Atlantic, which have certain homogeneity in terms of language and culture, the IOR is diverse and vast with a majority of humanity in it.
“So, to get such a diverse people together on a single platform is in itself an accomplishment. At least, it has got all the nations, including major maritime powers that are resident on the IOR, on a single platform where we can talk, discuss and take things forward.”