As the chair of IORA for 2015-2017, Indonesia will host the summit and assemble the leaders of its 21 members and seven dialogue partners for the proposed theme. The IORA Leaders’ Summit is of great relevance to national, regional and global interests. Indonesia’s leadership among the Indian Ocean littoral states in IORA therefore matters.

The area surrounding the Indian Ocean are home to approximately 2.7 billion people. It is an immense, rich and highly diverse region. It is the main shipping lane for 70 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas as well as the source of one-third of fish caught worldwide.

The ocean’s ports handle 30 percent of global trade. Around 100,000 ships traverse the Indian Ocean, carrying two-thirds of the world’s oil trade, one-third of the world’s cargo, and half of the world’s container ships. The statistics demonstrate that the notion of the Indian Ocean as the sea of the future is no exaggeration.

For Indonesia, the Indian Ocean is very promising for national development. In 2016, trade between Indonesia and IORA member states reached US$89.8 billion. Indonesia’s main export commodities are vegetable oil, textiles, tires and chemical products.

In the same year, IORA member states realized a number of investment projects in Indonesia, amounting to $11.67 billion, 40 percent of total foreign investment. In 2014, the number of visitors from IORA member countries traveling to Indonesia contributed to half of the country’s total tourist arrivals.

Simultaneously, the region is also home to an enduring myriad of emerging challenges, such as latent maritime disputes; piracy; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; human and illicit drug trafficking; extreme weather events; and mounting environmental pressures on coastal and marine resources.