Goa Maritime Conclave

Subject – IR

Context – Third edition of the annual Goa Maritime Conclave (GMC-21) started in Goa from November 7, 2021.

Concept –

The theme for this year’s edition of GMC is “Maritime Security and Emerging Non-Traditional Threats: A Case for Proactive Role for IOR Navies”, which has been derived keeping in mind the necessity of ‘winning everyday peace’ in the maritime domain.
At the GMC 2021, Indian Navy is hosting Chiefs of Navies/ Heads of Maritime Forces from 12 Indian Ocean Region countries comprising Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The Indian Ocean Region

The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean of the world and covers nearly 20% of water surface.
The Indian Ocean Region can be roughly identified as follows: Its western border is continental Africa to a longitude of 20° E, where it stretches south from Cape Agulhas; its northern border is continental Asia from Suez to the Malay Peninsula; in the east it incorporates Singapore, the Indonesian archipelago, Australia to longitude 147° E and Tasmania; while in the south it stretches to latitude 60° S as determined per the Antarctic Treaty of
The region has 51 coastal and landlocked states, namely 26 Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) states, five Red Sea states, four Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, France, Britain and 13 landlocked states.
Four critically important access waterways are
- the Suez Canal (Egypt),
- Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen),
- Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and
- Strait of Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia).
Major seaports are:
- Chennai (Madras, India);
- Colombo (Sri Lanka);
- Durban (South Africa);
- Jakarta (Indonesia);
- Kolkata (Calcutta, India);
- Melbourne (Australia);
- Mumbai (Bombay, India);
- Richards Bay (South Africa).