Regional organizations in the Indian Ocean region:possibilities of collaboration between IOMAC and IOR-ARC

Abstract

In antiquity, Sri Lanka acted as a fulcrum in the maritime trade routes linking East Asia with Africa and Europe. At present, in addition to playing the role of a trans-shipment hub linking India with the world, Sri Lanka could also fulfil a comparable function in China's burgeoning trade with Africa. Moreover, in the mid-1980s, Sri Lanka played a coordinating role in an ambitious effort at regional cooperation in marine affairs following closely on the footsteps of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) with the Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Cooperation (IOMAC) Secretariat being located in Sri Lanka. While IOMAC did carry out many initiatives for facilitating regional cooperation in marine and maritime affairs in the late-1980s and the 1990s, the 1990 Arusha Agreement which was meant to establish IOMAC as an organization did not receive the necessary number of ratifications even by the late 1990s. In the meantime, the Indian-Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation was formally launched in 1997 with Sri Lanka as a founder member with a Secretariat in Mauritius. While in the initial stages the IOR-ARC focused on economic cooperation in recent years it has started moving into maritime cooperation as well. Its maritime cooperation efforts include the establishment of a Fisheries Support Unit (FSU) and a Maritime Transport Council (MTC). In this latter process, the work already done by IOMAC on marine and maritime issues could be a valuable resource for IOR-ARC. In fact Australia has been a country which has over the years encouraged collaboration between IOMAC and IOR-ARC. With Australia assuming the Chairmanship of IOR-ARC this year for a period of two years (2013 and 2014), this might be an opportune time to initiate such cooperation. This paper will elaborate on the activities of IOMAC and IOR-ARC and make a case for collaboration between them.