1. Security of the Indian Ocean Maritime System

The French Indian Ocean island territories include Crozet, Kerguelen, Mayotte, Reunion, St. Paul and Amsterdam, and the Scattered Islands.

The British Indian Ocean Territory.

The term ‘West Asia’ is used in preference to ‘Middle East’, as it more accurately describes contemporary Asian geography than the latter term, which is a legacy of the British and European colonial past.

IORA is the only regional forum linking most countries of the Indian Ocean rim through an annual Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The Charter declares that IORA facilitates and promotes economic cooperation, bringing together representatives of member states’ governments, businesses and academia. In a spirit of multilateralism, the Association seeks to build and expand understanding and mutually beneficial cooperation through a consensus-based, evolutionary and non-intrusive approach. Members are Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen. China, Egypt, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States are dialogue partners. The Indian Ocean Tourism Organization and the Indian Ocean Research Group have observer status.

IONS “provides a regional forum through which the ‘Chiefs-of-Navy’ of all the littoral states of the IOR can periodically meet to constructively engage one another through the creation and promotion of regionally relevant mechanisms, events, and activities”. IONS includes the navies of 36 nations that permanently hold territory that abuts or lies within the Indian Ocean. These have been grouped into four subregions: South Asian Littorals: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom; West Asian Littorals: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen; East African Littorals: Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania; and South East Asian and Australian Littorals: Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste. Navies that have a strategic interest in the IOR are also invited to participate in the biennial seminars and annual workshops; the United States, China, Italy and Russia have participated.

The term ‘traditional security’ is generally applied to ‘nation-state on nation-state’ security issues, conflicts and wars; ‘non-traditional security’ encompasses challenges to the survival and well-being of peoples and states that arise primarily out of non-military sources and includes such issues as transnational crime, piracy and sea robbery, terrorism, natural and man-made disasters, information security and cybercrime; and climate change, resource exploitation and pollution.

Law and order at sea issues include, for example, piracy; smuggling of people, drugs and arms; illegal fishing; illegal immigration; and marine pollution and dumping at sea.