The money would be provided as a special fund to finance various “high-visibility” projects which would be identified later, Krishna said at the open session of the 11th meeting of the Council of Ministers (COM) of IOR-ARC.
The meeting saw India assuming the group’s chair and Australia the vice-chair for the next two years. Yemen held the chair and India the vice-chair in the previous term.
The group, established in 1997 to promote sustainable growth in the countries along the Indian Ocean, will be renamed following a suggestion by Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to this effect. Krishna said the new name would be worked out later by the officials in the Union Ministry of External Affairs.
The changed name would have to be ratified at the next meeting of the group’s COM, Krishna added.
Seychelles, which had withdrawn from IOR-ARC in 2003, has rejoined the group, becoming its 19th member. K V Bhagirath, India’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, will assume charge as the new Secretary General of the group on January 1, 2012.
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