Description
includes flashpoints involving extra-regional powers; is host to a few of the fastest growing economies and emerging powr centres; and some of the crucial sea lanes pass through this space. At the same time, it is increasingly an area of rivalries, trans-national crime, non-traditional threats to security, tensions and disputes, highlighting the need for strategic and economic cooperation, particularly amongst the littoral and hinterland countries. The somewhat slow to take off Indian Ocean Rim Cooperation (IOR-ARC) initiative could become one smell effort to initiate such cooperation. The importance for closer regional co-operation amongst the countries of the Indian Ocean cannot be over-emphasised. There are positive indications that IOR-ARC may take on a renewed salience in the future due to renewed regional interest; it is likely that Indian Ocean linkages will improve, not just in matters of trade but also on a number of issues including non-traditional security threats and challenges such as sea piracy, climage change, food security, human security and environmental issues.
