(Pakistan Point News - 13th Nov, 2021) ABU DHABI, 13 November 2021 (WAM) - On 17 November 2021, Ahmed Al Sayegh, Minster of State, will officially hand over the Chairship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for the 2021-2023 period. The handover will take place at IORA’s 21st Council of Ministers Meeting, which is being hosted in hybrid format in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The 21st IORA Council of Ministers Meeting will be held under the theme of "Harnessing the Opportunities of the Indian Ocean Sustainably for Inclusive Development." The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which chaired IORA for the 2019-2021 term under the theme of "Promoting a Shared Destiny and Path to Prosperity in the Indian Ocean," will hand over a report to Bangladesh outlining the progress made by the association in pursuit of closer regional cooperation.
The UAE will also participate in the 23rd meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO), which will be held from 15 to 16 November 2021. Abdulnasser Alshaali, Assistant Minister for Economic and Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will lead the UAE’s delegation to Dhaka and hand over the chairship of IORA for the CSO.
The UAE will remain part of IORA’s leadership over the next two years as part of the Troika, which will be comprised of Bangladesh (Chair), the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Vice-Chair), and the UAE (Past Chair).
The UAE joined IORA in 1999 and assumed Chairship on 7 November 2019 during the 19th IORA Council of Ministers Meeting in Abu Dhabi.
