Correct Answer : Seychelles
Indian Navy-affiliated IFC-IOR (Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean region) has inked an MoU with the Seychelles-based Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC) on 22 February 2023.
The MoU signed by Capt Rohit Bajpai, Director, IFC-IOR and Capt Sam Gontier, Director, RCOC.
Aim : To promote collaboration between the two Centres towards enhancing maritime domain awareness, information sharing and expertise development.
Directors of both IFC-IOR and RCOC unanimously upheld the need to elevate the information sharing mechanism and analysis so that actions at sea can be cued accordingly.
The directors affirmed that ‘the MoU will enhance trust and improve synergy between the centres towards furthering collaborative maritime safety and security in the Indian Ocean Region’.
The High Commissioner of India to Seychelles and senior officals and representatives of the IFC-IOR and RCOC participated in the MoU-signing event.
IFC-IOR will be collating, fusing and disseminating intelligence on ‘White Shipping’ in the Indian Ocean.
The IFC-IOR, which was established in 2018, coordinates with regional countries on maritime issues and acts as a maritime security information sharing hub for the Indian ocean region. Since its inception, IFC-IOR has effectively formed connects with several multinational maritime security centres.
The current initiative too will result in deeper collaboration between the two centres. The initiative will pave way for the centres to form a common maritime understanding in order to counter non-traditional maritime security threats, including terrorism, piracy, armed robbery, arms smuggling, human and contraband trafficking, Illegal Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing, poaching, etc.
It is pertinent to note that the RCOC and the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC), in Seychelles, are a part of the maritime defence architecture in the Western Indian Ocean..
Source : News on Air
