8th Edition of Indian Ocean Dialogue

On 15th December, 2021, India hosted the 8th Edition of the Indian Ocean Dialogue (IOD) with the assistance of the Indian Council for World Affairs and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Secretariat.

About the Indian Ocean Dialogue

• The Indian Ocean Dialogue (IOD) is a flagship initiative of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, with its origins in the 13^th Council of Ministers meeting, held in November 2013 in Perth, Australia.
• It is a premier track 1.5 forum for open and free flowing dialogue among various stakeholders - scholars, experts, analysts, and policy makers from governments, think tanks and civil societies on strategic issues of interest and concern facing the region and beyond.
• India has hosted the 1^st and the 6^th Editions of the Indian Ocean Dialogue in September 2014 and December 2019 respectively.

Key Highlights

• Aim: The aim of the 8^th IOD was to understand how IORA Member States embraced and used various digital technologies and platforms to overcome COVID-19 disruptions in the health, education, development and trade sectors, as also the opportunities that were accrued by using these technologies.
• The Dialogue aimed at triggering cooperation among IORA Member States in the field of digital technologies while ensuring digital inclusion and bridging the digital divide.
• Theme: ‘Post Pandemic Indian Ocean: Leveraging Digital Technologies for Health, Education, Development and Trade in IORA Member States’.
• Digital Technologies: During the panel discussions, the IORA Member States and Dialogue Partners shared their successes and best practices with regard to digital technologies to fight the pandemic.
• Digital Needs and Innovation: The Member States highlighted new digital needs and innovative approaches for harnessing these technologies for achieving the UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among others.

India’s Stand

• India underlined the need for greater collaboration among IORA Member States in the true spirit of solidarity to combat the pandemic.
• It noted the critical role of new and emerging technologies and re-affirmed the country’s readiness to extend all possible support and cooperation in this regard.
• India reiterated that IORA Member States have immense scope for potential engagement in various key areas such as health, education, trade & development and underlined the importance of sharing of experience and best practices as well as developing innovative and frugal approaches to solving shared problems in the region.