Focus on economic cooperation, security threat mitigation
GBDESK//
Foreign policy analysts have called for focusing on economic cooperation and de-escalation of security threats in the Indian Ocean region which is increasingly becoming an area of strategic contestation among the great powers.
They said that transparency in cooperation among the regional countries are fundamental to peace and prosperity.
The observation came at the sixth Indian Ocean Conference, jointly organised by the India Foundation and the foreign ministries of Bangladesh and India, at the InterContinental Dhaka hotel yesterday.
More than 150 representatives, including the top leaders and ministers, from 25 countries are taking part in the two-day event.
According to foreign policy analysts, the Indian Ocean region is becoming much more complex and contested. The US has launched its Indo-Pacific Strategy having defence elements that some analysts say are targeted at China.
China’s claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea have antagonised competing claimants Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Analysts say this is the reality when the Indian Ocean nations face some major challenges, including environmental security, human and drug smuggling. But the massive potential of their blue economy largely remains untapped.
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