Sakhuja, Vijay

Summary
The extended Indian Ocean space from the shores of Africa to Australia, arguably, holds the potential to define the contours of the emerging global geo-strategic and economic architecture: it is rich in energy and other resources; includes flashpoints involving extra-regional powers; is host to a few of the fastest growing economies and emerging power centres; and some of the crucial sea lanes pass through this space. At the same time, it is increasingly an area of rivalries, trans-national crime, non-traditional threats to security, tensions and disputes, highlighting the need for strategic and economic cooperation, particularly amongst the littoral and hinterland countries. The somewhat slow to take off Indian Ocean Rim Cooperation (IOR-ARC) initiative could become one smell effort to initiate such cooperation.