Official-level IORA meeting opens to boost regional architecture 

The 27th meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) began on Monday virtually under the theme "Strengthening Regional Architecture: Reinforcing Indian Ocean Identity".

The Bangladesh delegation, senior officials and representatives from the IORA Member States and IORA Secretariat are attending the two-day long virtual meeting.

Dialogue Partners and representatives from IORA specialised agencies were also present during the opening session of the meeting, according to a message here.

During the meeting, the CSO will take stock of the progress that IORA has made since the last CSO meeting, and discuss future initiatives in the region.

Decisions taken by the CSO will then be reported to the IORA Council of Ministers (COM) for consideration and adoption.

Bangladesh was the Chair of IORA for the period of 2021-2023. Bangladesh is now actively playing its role in IORA decision making process, as a part of IORA Troika.

Bangladesh, with the support of the IORA Secretariat has led a consultative process involving Member States and IORA's partners to develop the "draft IORA Climate Change Strategic Agenda".

After a detailed discussion the draft was finalized in the meeting. In today's meeting, the IORA Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) recommended this finalized draft to the Council of Ministers (COM) for their approval.