BSS, Dhaka :Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) 2016 will begin in the city on Monday. The symposium is going to be held at Hotel Raddision under overall arrangement of Bangladesh Navy, said an ISPR press release here yesterday. President Md. Abdul Hamid is expected to inaugurate the symposium.Naval Chiefs of 32 countries, senior naval representatives, head of many international maritime organizations and great maritime strategists have already been invited to attend the symposium.In recognition of promoting international and regional cooperation and collaboration among the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) countries, Chief of Naval Staff of Bangladesh Navy has been elected as the chairman of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) for the year 2016-18. Now Bangladesh Navy is hosting the 5th biennial assembly of IONS (IONS 2016) in Dhaka where Naval Chiefs and Head of many International Maritime Organizations of 39 countries are expected to attend the symposium.It is mentionable that the 1st symposium was held in India in 2008, 2nd in UAE in 2010, 3rd in South Africa in 2012 and 4th in Australia in 2014. Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) is a multinational maritime security initiative undertaken in 2008.In the broader perspective it was initiated taking all the littoral countries of the Indian Ocean (IO) onboard to promote friendly relationship and build professional cooperation among the Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) littorals.It is aimed at to promote measures and mechanisms of constructive engagement addressing the issues of regional maritime security and cooperation in the maritime domain. Over a very short span of time IONS has emerged as one of the largest alliance of navies and maritime security agencies of the world.Currently IONS has 22 members (Australia, Bangladesh, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sicily, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, East Timor, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom) and 04 observer (China, Japan, Malaysia and Madagascar) navies and maritime security agencies.With a view to attending the conference the invited Chiefs of Naval Staffs and other delegations will arrive in Dhaka on January 10, 2016. The Inauguration Ceremony will be held on January 11, 2016 and there will be three seminars on Geo-Strategic and Economic Outlook of IOR in 1st session, Maritime Security in the IOR in 2nd session and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in 3rd session after the inauguration.On the 3rd day on January 12 in 2016, two seminars on Maritime Cooperation and Collaboration in the IOR in 1st session and Future Outlook of IONS in 2nd session will be held.In the evening, there will be an arrangement of Bangladesh Fair and Social & Cultural Events for all participants. On the final day of the symposium Conclave of Chiefs (CoC) will be held and all seminar attendee delegations will depart.
