Official sources said the US has requested that it should be considered for the Association's dialogue partner and the upcoming meeting, which will be attended by 10 Foreign Ministers and seven Deputy Foreign Ministers, will consider it.
Currently, the IOR-ARC has five dialogue partners---China, Japan, Egypt, France and the UK--and two Observers.
Initially known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative, IOR- ARC is an international organization with 19 member-states and was first established in Mauritius on March 1995 and formally launched on 6