China hosts Indian Ocean nations, leaves India out

China earlier this week hosted 19 countries including all countries from South Asia except India to attend a first Indian Ocean-focused forum, according to officials.

Ministerial officials and senior diplomats from Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Australia and eight African countries including South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania attended the first Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation (IORFDC) in the city of Kunming on November 21.

India wasn’t invited to the table, the officials said.

The forum was organised by China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), a government agency headed by former vice foreign minister and Chinese ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui.

Taking the opportunity for the forum to widen its sphere of influence in the vast maritime region, China proposed to establish a marine disaster prevention and mitigation cooperation mechanism with the countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

China is “…ready to provide necessary financial, material, and technical support to countries in need,” a CIDCA statement released at the end of the forum said. “China also proposed the establishment of a blue economy think tank network for China and countries in the Indian Ocean region with the support of (the province of) Yunnan,” the statement added.