Spain joins Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI)

• Jose Manuel Albares, Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain, visited India on January 21.

• He held delegation level talks with Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar in New Delhi.

• In 2026, India and Spain mark the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

• Albares also handed over a declaration of Spain’s accession to the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative to Jaishankar.

What is Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative?

• India envisages Indo-Pacific as a free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous region built on rules-based international order, with respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, freedom of navigation and over-flight, unimpeded lawful commerce, peaceful resolution of disputes, as well as equality of all nations. 

• PM Narendra Modi proposed the Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative (IPOI) at the East Asia Summit held in Bangkok, Thailand on November 4, 2019. 

• As an open global initiative, the IPOI draws on existing regional cooperation architecture and mechanisms to focus on seven central pillars. 

They are: 

i) Maritime security

ii) Maritime ecology

iii) Maritime resources

iv) Capacity building and resource sharing

v) Disaster risk reduction and management

vi) Science, technology and academic cooperation

vii) Trade connectivity and maritime transport.

• Being the lead maritime security agency of the government, the Indian Navy is deeply invested in the actualisation of each of the seven spokes or pillars of the IPOI.