♤ The ‘Indian Ocean Naval Symposium’ (IONS) is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region by providing an open and inclusive forum for discussion of regionally relevant maritime issues.

♤ In the process, it endeavors to generate a flow of information between naval professionals that would lead to common understanding and possibly cooperative solutions on the way ahead.

♤ The inaugural IONS-2008 was held in New Delhi, India on 14 Feb 08. CNS, Indian Navy was designated the Chairman IONS for the period 2008-10. A ‘Charter of Business’ was mutually agreed to by the Chiefs of the member-navies, which has been forwarded to all the member navies for ratification. The theme of the IONS-2008 was “Contemporary Trans- national Challenges – International Maritime Connectivities”.

♤ That the launch of so important a regional initiative was able to meet with such wide acceptance across the length and breadth of the Indian Ocean was in itself a unique phenomenon. There are 35 members - navies of the IONS which have been geographically grouped into the following four sub-regions:

o South Asian Littorals- Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Seychelles and Sri Lanka

o West Asian Littorals- Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen

o East African Littorals- Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eriteria, France, Kenya, Madagascar,

Mauritius, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania

o South East Asian and Australian Littorals- Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste.

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