DHAKA: The three-day Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) is set to begin in Dhaka on Sunday (January 10).

Bangladesh Navy will supervision the fifth edition of the program where navy chiefs, and its high-ups and maritime specialists of the Indian Ocean region will take part.

An ISPR (Inter Services Public Relations) press release revealed the matter on Saturday.

The release also said Bangladesh President M Abdul Hamid will be present as chief guest at the symposium at Hotel Radisson.

Earlier, invitation letters were sent to navy chiefs and related personnel of 32 countries of the area, it added.

However, IONS, is a forum to increase maritime cooperation among the littoral states of Indian Ocean Region.

The forum helps preserve peaceful relations between nations, and thus is critical to building effective maritime security architecture in the Indian Ocean Region and is also fundamental to collective prosperity, the release said.

Bangladesh was elected as IONS president for the 2016-2018 tenure unanimously during its fourth conference in Perth of Australia in 2014.

The symposium is arranged in biannual basis.

The inaugural IONS seminar was held by the Indian Navy in 2008. Subsequent seminars were held by the United Arab Emirates Navy in 2010, the South African Navy in 2012 and Australia Navy in 2014.

The organization includes 22 nations that permanently hold territory that abuts or lies within the Indian Ocean, and 4 observer nations:

Members

South Asian Littorals: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and United Kingdom (British Indian Ocean Territory)

West Asian Littorals: Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates

East African Littorals: France (Reunion), Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania

South East Asian and Australian Littorals: Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste

Observers

China, Japan, Madagascar and Malaysia

BDST: 2100 HRS, JAN 09, 2016
AS/SR/RR