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Jakarta Post

IORA responsible for regional stability, peace: Foreign minister

Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, October 27, 2016

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IORA responsible for regional stability, peace: Foreign minister Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi attends a meeting with the House of Representatives' commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs at the House complex on Aug. 31. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)

F

oreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has stressed the importance of the Indian Ocean Rim Association’s (IORA) role in maintaining peace and stability in the region during the opening of the organization's ministerial meeting in Bali.

"Through IORA, we have a responsibility to ensure that our region remains stable and peaceful," Retno said in her opening remarks, according to a statement received on Thursday.

The minister further noted that the Indian Ocean had become an engine of global economic growth and thus placing IORA as a strategic organization in the region. 

Retno said IORA's mechanism to address issues of common concern to its member states, such as utilization of natural resources in the Indian Ocean, would be cemented through the establishment of the IORA Concord, which was currently being deliberated. 

"Today we will discuss the progress [of the organization through] the concept of the IORA Concord that had been developed at the senior officials meeting, and I hope this document of the IORA Concord would also be brought to the high-level meeting in March 2017," Retno said, referring to the organization's inaugural summit set to be held in Indonesia next year.  

The document also aimed to strengthen the regional architecture and enhance the collective capacity to improve cooperation, she added.

In addition to the IORA Concord, the meeting in Bali would also produce a Bali Communique and a Gender Equality and Empowerment Declaration.

Established in 1997, IORA consists of countries bordering the Indian Ocean and aims to facilitate trade and investment, promote sustainable economic cooperation, as well as capacity building for development and welfare of its member states.  (dmr)

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