Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) commenced sharing informaton with 18 participating nations incuding Maldives.
According to Indian media The Hindu, India's National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval called upon countries in the Indian Ocean to utilize the intel gathered from IFC-OR, while speaking at the Goa Maritime Conclave.
The IFC-IOR, established in December 2018 in Gurugram, India, will be a single point centre linking all coastal radar chains in the region to generate a seamless real-time picture of the nearly 7,500 kilometre-long coastline.
The regional centres linked to IFC-IOR include the Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Centre (VRMTC), Maritime Security Centre - Horn of Africa (MSCHOA), Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery (ReCAAP), Information Fusion Centre-Singapore (IFC-SG) and International Maritime Bureau - Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC).
A website was established to facilitate information sharing between IFC-IOR and the aforementioned centres. An official from the Indian Navy revealed to The Hindu that monthly meetings would be held to analyse the data collected.
In addition to Maldives, several countries in the Indian Ocean Region have joined the coastal radar chain network including Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Seychelles. Bangladesh is set to join IFC-IOR while discussions are being held with Thailand as well.
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