Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Mr. Sylvestre Radegonde is currently in Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital, to participate, as a member, in the work of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).
Minister Radegonde, who is on his first trip to the Big Island, had several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of this one-day Council session which took place on May 17, 2023 at the Ivato International Conference Center.
In particular, he had bilateral discussions with his Comorian counterpart, Mr. Dhoihir Dhoulkamal, and the Secretary of State to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs and Europe in charge of the development of the Francophonie and international partnerships, Mrs. Chrysoula Zacharopoulou.
The Council of Ministers is the decision-making body of the IOC and this 37th Council, which was chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Madagascar, Mrs. Yvette Sylla, took 14 decisions. Among the decisions taken are the adoption of a new Strategic Development Plan (SDP) for the period 2023 – 2033, support for the continuation of IOC actions in favor of the full operationalization and consolidation of the regional architecture. of maritime safety, the invitation to the General Secretariat to pursue reflection on a regional mechanism for grouped purchases, and the invitation to the General Secretariat to transmit to the Member States additional information on the methods of hosting the Secretariat of the African Island States Climate Commission.
It should be noted that this 37th Ordinary session of the Council was very fruitful for the Seychelles, as two of the requests made by the archipelago to the IOC were granted.
These relate to Seychelles’ call for the IOC to set up a regional bulk import mechanism to reduce the price of imported foodstuffs and the request for the IOC headquarters to house the secretariat of the Island States Climate Commission. of Africa chaired by the Seychelles.
Minister Radegonde spoke several times during this 37th Council. In his speech during the opening ceremony, he emphasized the modernization of the IOC and its proximity to the concerns of the populations of its member states. “The start of technical assistance INCA II and COI Horizon 2030 are putting in place the cogs of this modernization while the implementation of the new Strategic Development Plan 2023-2033, which displays our ambitions, will materialize this desire for modernization, a- he said, adding, This new COI, modern and ambitious, must also be close to people’s concerns. This means that our great ambitions must always be anchored in the daily reality experienced by our populations. The IOC is not a closed circle of policy makers and technocrats. The IOC is an intergovernmental organization at the service of our populations”.
Minister Radegonde who was accompanied by Ralph Agrippina, Permanent Liaison Officer of the Seychelles to the IOC, and Sylvain de Comarmond, Consul General of the Seychelles in Madagascar, also intervened in the debates on the subjects on the agenda of the meeting. Thus, in discussions on maritime security, he said that drug trafficking and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing have become the new maritime threats for Seychelles. “To uphold the rights granted to us under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in our Exclusive Economic Zone, Seychelles will be very tough on those who dare to come and practice IUU fishing there. Likewise, we will be ruthless and take resolute action against those who traffic illicit drugs, people and arms in our waters,” he noted.
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