Call For Creating an Indian Ocean Community Like the European Community

In the wake of the tsunami disaster of Dec. 26, 2004, the need for creating the Indian Ocean Community (IOC) as a cultural network gains urgency. The IOC should become the network for cooperation among the rim states of Hindumahasagar.

(PRWEB) February 5, 2005 -- This is a call for setting up an Indian Ocean Community (IOC), comparable to the European Community. IOC is a cultural network which can be activated, to fully recover from the enormous tragedy caused by Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami which has claimed so far over 280,000 lives and to promote increased cooperation for development efforts in the rim states of Hindumahasagar (Indian Ocean is so called in local languages of the ocean area).

On the tsunami waves should rise the realization that Indian Ocean unites more than 60 states of Asia-Pacific, 50 of which were affected by the tsunami disaster. These nations should get together, to start with, as an Indian-Ocean Free Trade Zone as a first step towards the ultimate constitution of an Indian Ocean Community which will rival the European Community with a total national asset exceeding 3 trillion dollars. The Community can become a veritable powerhouse for spurring economic development and growth in the world economy which is now in the doldrums caused by slump in the US stock markets. This is a community which has its roots in sea-faring merchants who navigated the Indian Ocean and established cultural contacts over a long period of over 2 million years. This cultural bond will be strengthened by the Indian Ocean Community, expanding the present groupings of SAARC, ASEAN and APEC, says a press release by IOSRG.

An Indian Ocean Studies Research Group (IOSRG) initiative was registereded in 2004, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu by a team of scholars with support from a number of socio-cultural and scientific institutions: Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, Dr. Gopalji Malaviya, Dr. Sankaran, S. Ram Mohan, Ambadi Venugopal.

The quake and tsunami which have struck the Indian Ocean states on the morning of 26 December 2004, is reportedly the strongest tremor that has struck anywhere in the world. The nature of the quake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale (Bhuj quake was only 8.2), resultant tsunami and the extensive area impacted shows the need for a rapid response coast guard team for rescue operations in an area covering the entire Indian Ocean rim-states, stretching from Straits of Hormuz through Straits of Malacca upto the Australian coast.

At least, a beginning can be made to study the nature of the tsunami caused by the quake and to agree on a co-operative inter-state response to such emergencies, using the combined facilities of the coast guards of the Indian Ocean Rim States. Such a cooperation should result in the constitution of an Indian Ocean Community on the lines of the European Community. IOSRG looks forward to networking with scholars, scientists and institutions concerned with this natural phenomenon on the Indian Ocean, says a Press Release.

Released by: Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, 4 January 2005 kalyan97@gmail.com

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