India Contributes $ 1m to Association of Indian Ocean Basin Countries

India has to demonstrate the importance it attaches to regional cooperation by giving Madhusudan Ganapathi, secretary to the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Southern Africa, responsible for remitting to Kocheril Velayudhan Bhagirath, Secretary General the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), a check for $ 1 million, or about Rs 31 million. Madhusudan Ganapathi was the Indian High Commissioner in Port-Louis on 9 September 2008 to August 19, 2011.

The ceremony was held in check for the presence of numerous personalities from the diplomatic Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at the headquarters of the IOR-ARC located on the third level of the tower a number of complex buildings NeXTeracom, Cybercity, Ebene.

War of influence in this association? If this is not the case, it looks so. With such a contribution, India is a serious option to punch its weight. In doing so, it relegates to the background that China as a 'Dialogue Partner' has made a contribution of $ 100,000 in July 2011 in this Special Fund. Other countries enjoying a status of 'dialogue partners' of the IOR-ARC are Egypt, France, Japan and the United Kingdom.

China's contribution to the Special Fund was well above that of each of the Member States that have paid money to this fund so far. These are respectively the Sultanate of Oman ($ 50,000 in 2006), Iran ($ 75,000 in 2007), Yemen ($ 25,000 in 2009).

This is the second contribution that India made to this fund. The first amount of $ 50,000 as of April 2006.

The post of Secretary General of the IOR-ARC has been assigned since January 1, 2012 to Kocheril Velayudhan Bhagirath, former high commissioner of the Great Peninsula in Tanzania. The director, Manish Kumar Agrawal, is an Indian citizen. Administrative support staff consists of Mauritians.

The idea of launching this Special Fund was launched in Tehran on a suggestion of Neewoor Anand, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mauritius. It was officially established in 2008.

The Special Fund has three objectives. The first is to fund projects and development programs endorsed by the Association. The second is to provide technical assistance for the preparation and execution of projects. The third one provides support to Member States for carrying out the study of prefeasibility and feasibility stage.

Bases to create a block consisting of countries with coastlines on the waters of the Indian Ocean Rim hence its name which means 'Edge' were thrown at a meeting convened by the government of Mauritius in Mauritius from 29 to 31 March 1995.

After seventeen, community Basin countries of the Indian Ocean has 19 members. These are Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, UAE and Yemen.