Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS)

IONS is a voluntary forum of navies. Start with who it brings together and why.

1. What is IONS, and who started it?

IONS stands for the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium. It is a voluntary and inclusive forum for the navies of the Indian Ocean Region. Its official site says the Indian Navy initiated it and that it was established in 2008.

The aim is to increase maritime co-operation among the navies of the littoral states. A littoral state is one with a coastline on the sea or ocean in question. IONS gives these navies an open place to discuss regional maritime issues. It also lets naval professionals share information and reach a common understanding.

2. Why does the Indian Ocean need a forum of navies?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the IONS seminar in New Delhi on 14 February 2008, at the launch of IONS. His speech gave the reasons in numbers. He said the Indian Ocean spans 28 million square kilometres. He said it hosts a third of the world’s population.

He also said the littoral states hold 25 per cent of the world’s landmass and 40 per cent of its energy sources. He said the Indian Ocean accounts for 70 per cent of the world’s natural disasters. These are the Prime Minister’s figures from 2008.

He listed terrorism, smuggling, piracy, robbery and human trafficking as shared threats. He said container handling at Colombo, Mumbai, Chittagong, Bangkok and Port Klang was growing by double digits. He also asked navies to help protect people from cyclones and tsunamis.

3. What does IONS say it wants to achieve?

The official mission is to build collaborative frameworks for maritime security. It also aims to build capacity among member navies. A third aim is to develop ways for the region to co-operate.

The official vision is a safe, secure and co-operative Indian Ocean Region. The site lists shared challenges. These include piracy and robbery, smuggling, illegal fishing, and illegal human migration.

IONS works through meetings of Chiefs of Navies, working groups, professional exchanges, maritime exercises and seminars. The site says it respects sovereignty and international law.

The story has a fixed start in 2008 and a rotating chair. Learn the start date first. Then learn how the chair moves.

4. When and where was IONS launched?

IONS was launched in New Delhi on 14 February 2008. The Prime Minister inaugurated the launch seminar that day. The seminar ran on 14 and 15 February at Vigyan Bhavan. The Indian Navy and the National Maritime Foundation ran it together.

The seminar theme was “Contemporary Transnational Challenges: International Maritime Connectivities”. CIMSEC says the chiefs of nearly all littoral navies came to Delhi.

Some news reports from 2022 say IONS was “established in 2007”. The Prime Minister’s speech is dated 14 February 2008. This lesson uses 2008 for the launch.

5. Who chaired IONS first, and for how long?

India chaired first. The Press Information Bureau says the inaugural edition was held in February 2008 with the Indian Navy as Chair for two years, 2008 to 2010.

The Conclave of Chiefs meets about every two years. Each time a new chair takes over. UAE took the chair next, in 2010.

India’s return in 2026 came 16 years after its first term. The Ministry of Defence release calls this a historic moment for the forum.

6. Which countries have hosted the Conclave and taken the chair?

The new chair hosts the Conclave of Chiefs at the handover. The first eight rows follow the official chair page, where the chair is the host country. The 9th row comes from the 9th Conclave record.

7. Why do sources disagree on chair dates?

Dates for later chairs are contested. The official chair page lists the 8th Conclave in Bangkok as 2023 to 2025. At the 9th Conclave the Thai Navy chief spoke of Thailand’s tenure from 2024 to 26.

The Press Information Bureau said in December 2023 that India would take the chair for 2025 to 27. The handover came on 20 February 2026. The official record calls it the 2026 to 2028 cycle.

The 6th Conclave was in 2018. The 7th is listed as 2021 to 2023, so that gap is longer than two years. For exams, remember the order of chairs. Do not rely on one source’s term dates.

8. How did India take the chair back in 2026?

The 9th Conclave of Chiefs met at Visakhapatnam on 20 February 2026. Chiefs of Navies and heads of maritime agencies from 33 countries attended. The Indian Navy took over the chair from the Royal Thai Navy.

Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, then Chief of the Naval Staff, became Chair at the handover. He proposed the theme CORE. It stands for Cooperation, Operational awareness, Resilience and Engagement. The record counts 92 delegates at the Conclave.

9. What did the 9th Conclave decide?

The Conclave adopted Charter of Business version 3.1. It also adopted the maritime security guidelines, the HADR guidelines version 3.2 and the IONS flag guidelines. HADR means humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

It gave the Philippines observer status. It admitted Oman to the HADR working group. It launched an upgraded website, ions.global.

It also fixed the next chairs. Saudi Arabia will chair for 2028 to 2030 and Kenya for 2030 to 2032. Saudi Arabia will host the preparatory workshop in 2027. Iran will host one in 2029 or 2028; the record gives both. The agenda item and closing remarks say 2029. The resolution table says 2028.

IONS has members and observers. It also has a set way to rotate the chair. Learn the numbers, then the pattern.

10. How many members and observers does IONS have?

The official home page lists 25 members and 10 observers. The members are listed in blocks, with Bangladesh and Pakistan last.

• India, Maldives, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
• Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
• France, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania.
• Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
• Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The observers are Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, China, Spain and the Philippines. The Philippines joined on 20 February 2026.

Counts differ across documents. The 9th Conclave record says 20 member delegations attended, but it names 21. That counts attendance, not total membership. The 2022 exercise reports say 25 members.

11. What are the four sub-regions, and how does the chair rotate?

CIMSEC groups the 37 littoral states of the region into four sub-regions. The chair rotates through them in turn. This keeps each part of the ocean represented.

The CIMSEC lists, from 2016, hold 11 West Asian, 13 East African, 6 South Asian and 7 South-East Asian and Australian states.

The 9th Conclave record confirms the pattern. Saudi Arabia is the West Asian chair for 2028 to 2030. Kenya then volunteered from East Africa.

12. How does the Conclave of Chiefs make decisions?

The Conclave of Chiefs is the top meeting. It runs under a formal Charter of Business. The charter sets membership categories, norms and decision rules. CIMSEC notes it was adopted early, unlike the 12 years the Western Pacific Naval Symposium took for its charter.

Items at the 9th Conclave were adopted by consensus. Version 3.0 had gained a 66 per cent quorum clause. Version 3.1 asks for more than half the members in person and a quorum of two thirds, counting video links.

A preparatory workshop, called the IPW, makes recommendations to the Conclave first. The IONS Secretariat sits in India, at South Block, New Delhi.

IONS turns talk into practice through working groups, exercises and exchanges. Each has a clear job.

13. What are the three working groups?

Three IONS Working Groups, or IWGs, are active. HADR builds ways to respond fast to disasters. MARSEC handles piracy, terrorism, trafficking and other threats to order at sea. IS&I covers information sharing and interoperability.

India and Iran co-chair both HADR and MARSEC. Australia and France co-chair IS&I. The 9th Conclave approved the same co-chairs for 2026 to 2028. Oman joined the HADR group in 2026.

14. What was IMEX-22, the first IONS maritime exercise?

IMEX-22 was the maiden IONS Maritime Exercise. It ran from 26 to 30 March 2022 at Goa and in the Arabian Sea. A harbour phase at Mormugao Port came first, on 26 and 27 March. The sea phase followed from 28 to 30 March.

The aim was interoperability in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Warships, aircraft and helicopters came from Bangladesh, France, India and Iran. Twenty-two observers from 15 member navies joined. Participants validated the IONS HADR guidelines.

Reports differ on the turnout. Two say 16 of 25 members took part. Naval Technology says 15 and lists 15 names. It names Iran separately as a ship contributor. Adding Iran gives 16.

15. What else is on the IONS calendar?

An exercise, IMEX-24, was held off Iran. The IONS Tactical Publication was validated there. India then revised it, and the Conclave adopted the revision. It is to be validated again at an exercise planned for 2027.

The Conclave record planned a table-top exercise for March 2026. PIB reports the exercise was held at Kochi on 27 March 2026. The Emerging Leaders Panel Discussion met in Kochi on 27 and 28 August 2025. India also deployed the ship IOS Sagar with personnel from IONS navies. IOS Sagar began on 16 March and ended at Kochi on 20 May 2026.

An essay competition builds interest among younger officers. The 2025 prizes were $500, $300 and $150. The 2026 prizes rise to $1,000, $750 and $500. Entries closed on 15 August 2026.

16. Why is disaster relief the easiest place to co-operate?

CIMSEC calls HADR exercises among the most readily acceptable activities, even in a sensitive region. IMEX-22 was a HADR exercise.

In 2008 the Prime Minister asked navies to help in disasters. His 70 per cent figure for the ocean’s share of natural disasters is why relief matters here. The photo below shows Indian Navy doctors treating tsunami-affected patients at Nagapattinam on 2 January 2005.

UPSC 2017 twisted one fact: the year.

17. What is the 2008 versus 2015 trap?

UPSC asked about IONS in its 2017 prelims. The stem is quoted from the official UPSC paper, Series A, question 68.

One statement said the inaugural IONS was held in India in 2015 under the Indian Navy. That is false. It was held in 2008.

The second statement called IONS a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among the navies of littoral states. That is correct. The answer was 2 only. The official paper lists the options in a different order. The key is the same statement, 2 only.

The Indian Navy did chair the first term, from 2008 to 2010. Only the year was wrong.

18. How is IONS different from IORA?

Unlike IORA, IONS is a forum of navies. IORA is an association of Indian Ocean Rim states. CIMSEC says it began in March 1997 as IOR-ARC, with Mauritius leading. It stayed economic at first.

It was renamed IORA in 2013. Maritime safety and security became its first priority. CIMSEC said in 2016 that IORA had no institutional link with IONS.

CIMSEC calls the Western Pacific Naval Symposium an important multilateral security construct at the navy level. Its charter took 12 years, from 1988 to 2000.

19. What is a one-glance summary?

Add one hook for each row. The launch hook is the 2015 trap. The chair hook is India’s return after 16 years. The member hook is the Philippines joining in 2026.