China-Indian Ocean Region Forum

China’s top development aid agency convened the first “China-Indian Ocean Region Forum” in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. Indian Ocean nations raise apprehensions about China’s intentions.

China-Indian Ocean Region Forum is organised by China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA).

The theme of this forum is Shared Development : Theory and practice from the perspective of Blue Economy.

This forum was attended by high-level representative and senior officials from 19 countries. These are Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Oman, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Djibouti and Australia.

Many countries has raised concerned about the participation of Australia and Maldives in this forum. But Australia and Maldives released statements stating that they did not participate officially.

At the end of the forum, it issued a “Joint Press Statement” that noted China’s proposal to establish a marine disaster prevention and mitigation cooperation mechanism between China and countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOC).

All parties agreed to strengthen policy coordination, deepen development cooperation, increase resilience to shocks and disaster, and enhance relevant countries capacity to obtain economic benefits through use of marine resources such as fisheries, renewable energy, tourism and shipping in a sustainable way.

• Market Perspective : Indian Ocean Littoral region houses one third of the world population.
• Trade : more than 50% of world seaborne trade and commerce passes through Indian Ocean Region.
• Natural Resources : IOR has enormous seabed resources comprising oil and natural gas reserve, minerals and abundance of fish resources.
• Strategic significance : IOR contains major check points & sea lanes of communication like Malacca straits, Strait of Hormuz, Bay-el-Mandeb strait and Mozambique strait.

• Security perspective : India has nearly 7516km of maritime boundary in Indian Ocean Region because of which vulnerable to potential threats like terrorism, climate change, piracy etc.
• Fishing : Indian fishing and aquaculture industries dependent on IOR for fish production, export and provide employment to more than 14 million people.
• Trade : India’s 95% of total trade by volume and 68% by value happened through Indian Ocean.
• Energy security : Offshore oil production comes from IOR and India’s oil import which comes from Gulf countries also routed via Indian Ocean.