The Defence Minister of India inaugurated IFC-IOR in Gurugram.
The IFC for Indian Ocean Region has the primary objective of jointly monitoring the vast Indian Ocean Region.
The Indian Ocean which is increasingly becoming the bone of contention between different countries, also suffers threats from natural disasters, piracy, terrorism and trafficking.
IFC-IOR will provide a way to tackle these challenges through collaborative and cooperative efforts.
Internationally, India has White Shipping Agreements with 36 countries, and three multinational agencies which provides details of all commercial ships passing through the ports in their region.
India also gathers information inputs from long range identification and tracking mechanism under the International Maritime Organisation.
Such diverse and complex data is fused together by a software to produce into a “common operating picture”.
The fact that more than 75% of the world’s maritime trade and 50% of global oil consumption passes through the Indian Ocean Region proves the significance of guarding the IOR.