Vice President Hamid Ansari will attend the Summit of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) on March 7 in Jakarta, Indonesia where the 21-nation grouping will discuss ways to strengthen maritime cooperation and fight against violent extremism.
The summit, with the theme of 'Strengthening Maritime Cooperation for a Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous Indian Ocean', will be preceded by a meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials on March 5 and a meeting of the Council of Ministers on March 6.
Leaders and representatives of the 21 member states and seven dialogue partners of IORA are expected to attend the summit.
"The summit shall adopt three documents, namely the IORA Concord, an action plan as well as a stand-alone declaration on countering violent extremism," according to an official statement from the IORA Secretariat.
"The IORA Concord is a strategic document which sets the ways and means to strengthen the regional architecture in the Indian Ocean Rim and elevate IORA as a regional cooperation," it added.
The IORA Summit is expected to provide momentum to the strengthening of cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
IORA is a regional forum which aims at facilitating and promoting economic co-operation, bringing together, inter-alia, the representatives of the Member States' governments, businesses and academia.
The association comprises India, Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
It also has seven Dialogue Partners -- the US, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan and the UK.
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