What IORA is and how it works

A coast, and not much else

Nelson Mandela told an audience in India in 1995 that "the natural urge of the facts of history and geography should broaden itself to include the concept of an Indian Ocean Rim for socio-economic co-operation". The Indian Ocean Rim Initiative followed in March 1995, and the charter that turned it into a standing body was adopted in Mauritius on 7 March 1997. The association it created carried the name Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation until the Council of Ministers meeting at Perth shortened it in 2013.

A coast on one ocean is the qualification. Past that the roster holds together loosely: the catalogue files nine of the members in Africa, twelve in Asia, one in Europe and one in Oceania. English is an official language in eight of them, Arabic in five and French in five, and no language is official in all.

Who joined, and when

Fourteen governments signed in 1997: Australia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Yemen. Bangladesh, Iran, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates joined in 1999. Admissions have come singly since, at intervals of two to four years: Seychelles in 2011, the Comoros in 2012, Somalia in 2014, the Maldives in 2018 and France in 2020.

Absence is the other half of the record. Pakistan, Myanmar, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Qatar and Timor-Leste each hold a coast on the ocean or on one of its arms, and none of them is on the roster. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are not on it either, and both hold the standing the association keeps beside membership: Egypt has been a dialogue partner since 1999 and Saudi Arabia since 2023. Twelve states and organisations held that standing when the list was read in September 2026, from Japan and Egypt in 1999 to the European Union in 2024. The Council of Ministers seats the foreign ministers of member states only.

France, and where its coast is

France's record here is filed under Europe. Its coast on the Indian Ocean is at Réunion and Mayotte, both named in Article 72-3 of the constitution of 4 October 1958 among the overseas communities governed under Article 73, and its admission in 2020 came twenty-three years after the charter and eight years after the Comoros joined.

Mayotte is claimed as well as administered. It returned a majority for staying French when the Comoros archipelago voted on independence in 1974, and it became a French department in March 2011 after a referendum held in March 2009; the Comoros holds that the vote of 1974 was taken by one territory and that Mayotte left with it. Both governments sit in the association. The catalogue records the two readings and settles neither.

The structure, and the work programme

The Council of Ministers stands at the top of it, seats the foreign minister of every member and meets once a year or more often. A Committee of Senior Officials meets twice a year beneath it, and a Sub-Committee on Finance reviews the budget and the audited statements at least twice a year under that.

Six priority areas were adopted at the Council of Ministers held in India in 2011: maritime safety and security, trade and investment facilitation, fisheries management, disaster risk management, tourism and cultural exchanges, and academic, science and technology co-operation. Women's economic empowerment was added as a cross-cutting issue in 2013 and the blue economy in 2014.

A pilot coordination mechanism was set up in Mauritius in 1998 and the first secretary-general appointed the same year. The secretariat moved from Vacoas to Ebène in 2009 and into new premises there in 2012, so the country that hosted the founding meeting has held the offices throughout.

Heads of government met for the first time at Jakarta from 5 to 7 March 2017, twenty years after the charter, and issued the Jakarta Concord. The 22nd Council of Ministers adopted the IORA Outlook on the Indo-Pacific at Dhaka on 24 November 2022, and IORA Vision 2030 was adopted at Colombo in 2023.

What the members bring with them

Thirteen of the members belong to the Commonwealth. Every member the catalogue files in Africa holds a seat in the African Union, four sit in ASEAN, four in SAARC and two in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Australia and France are the two members that belong to the OECD, and the two that do not belong to the Group of 77. Across that spread the association's own account of its method is a "consensus-based, evolutionary and non-intrusive approach".