India to handover IOR-ARC Chair to Australia

India will handover the Chair of Indian Ocean Region Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR -ARC) to Australia tomorrow at a meeting of the grouping in Perth, which will be attended by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
The minister left for Perth last night to participate in IOR-ARC, which was being chaired by India for last two years and Khurshid will hand over the baton to Australia, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said here.
Indonesia will take over as Vice Chair of the 20-member organisation of countries from Indian Ocean region.
They are likely to discuss a range of issues tomorrow, including the name of the organisation itself, he said.

"Last year also, there was an attempt to shorten the name and this is on the agenda again", the spokesperson said, adding that issues likely to be discussed also include cooperation with the UN and other agencies, greater engagement with dialogue partners and secretariat of the organisation.
"Australia is also proposing declaration of Perth principles for peaceful and sustainable use of Indian Ocean and its resources," he said, while listing the possible issues to be discussed at the meeting tomorrow.

The members would also discuss the mechanism and ways to strengthen the organisation, while another issue that may come up is the mobility within the Indian Ocean region universities.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a bilateral meeting with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott in Brunei on sidelines of ASEAN and East Asia Summits.
Among other issues, Singh and Abbott had also discussed matters like cooperation in defence security and Nalanda University, and student exchange programmes.