About IOC

• The  Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) is an intergovernmental body created in 1984 that coordinates maritime governance in the south-western Indian Ocean.
• It consists of five Member States: The Union of the Comoros, France Reunion Island, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles.
• The IOC is the only regional organisation in Africa to represent a group of islands.
• The IOC’s mission is to unite Member States’ forces and pool their resources, raise awareness of the special challenges that developing islands face and promote Indianoceania as a region of unique human, cultural and natural diversity.
• Recently, India has been accepted as an observer of the Indian Ocean Commission.

About IFC-IOR

• The Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) was inaugurated in 2018 within the premises of the Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram.
• The IMAC is the single point centre linking all the coastal radar chains to generate a seamless real-time picture of nearly 7,500-km coastline and of some neighbouring countries. It helps in tracking maritime movements in the region. 

Why in News?

• After joining the Indian Ocean Commission as Observer, India is looking to post Navy Liaison Officers at the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC) in Madagascar and also at the European maritime surveillance initiative in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) for improved Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA).
• This will be in the overall realm of improving linkages of the Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) with other IFCs and become the repository for all maritime data in the IOR.

RMFIC & EMASOH

• The RMFIC functions under the aegis of the IOC. 
• EMASOH is supported by eight countries which includes Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and France.
• The aim is to monitor maritime activity and guarantee freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
• On February 5, the initiative was declared operational by the French Ministry of Armed Forces.

Related agreements

• Of late, India has signed a series of white shipping agreements, Logistics Support Agreements (LSA) and maritime cooperation agreements with several countries.
• For instance, at the virtual summit, India and Australia announced a joint declaration on a shared vision for maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in which they agreed to deepen navy-to-navy cooperation and strengthen MDA in the Indo-Pacific region through enhanced exchange of information.

• White shipping agreements refer to exchange of relevant advance information on the identity and movement of commercial non-military merchant vessels.

Reference:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-looks-to-deploy-naval-liaisons-at-madagascar-abu-dhabi-for-information-exchange/article31828272.ece