Gurugram (Haryana) December 22 ANI: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while launching the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) said the objective of having an IFC-IOR is more for partners besides keeping the global commons safe and democratically available for all.

She further said that besides utilising the collective wisdom and resources towards addressing the myriad challenges in the region, the IFC-IOR will help everyone to interface and integrate so that countries benefit from each other's best practices and expertise.

"The IFC-IOR will help foster bonds of trust, camaraderie and partnership, that are vital for relationships between nations to transcend from being merely transactional to ones that are transformational," the Minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief of Naval Staff Sunil Lanba said the IFC-IOR would work towards capability building in the region, coordination of incident response and disaster relief, and in time would also share submarine safety information.

He said, a worrying trend is the proliferation of violent non-state actors and networks at sea, which harbours numerous challenges and demands a recalibrated outlook to collective maritime security.

"Maritime piracy and maritime terrorism are two major ways in which non-state actors threaten to jeopardise the security of the maritime domain, with a direct influence on land affairs," the Naval chief said, adding that addressing these myriad challenges requires a very high level of maritime domain awareness.

"Addressing these myriad challenges requires a very high level of Maritime Domain Awareness and an appropriate mechanism to predict, prevent and respond to contingencies. However, the scale, scope and multi-national nature of maritime activities, make it difficult for countries to address these challenges individually. The only way to optimally harness individual strength is through collaborative and cooperative efforts, of which the IFC-IOR is a shining example," Lanba said.

He further said that as a part of the IFC-IOR's collaborative and capability development endeavours, the conduct of a maritime information sharing workshop at Delhi is also planned next year.

The information exchange at the IFC-IOR would be initially undertaken by virtual means, using telephone calls, faxes, emails and video conferencing over internet. Subsequently, to enable better interaction, quicker analysis of information and provide timely inputs, the IFC-IOR would host liaison officers from partner countries.

Besides enhancing capability building, the IFC-IOR would undertake conduct of exercises and training capsules in maritime information collation and sharing. (ANI)

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