Implications of Climate Change on Defence and Security in the Indian Ocean

This seminar is part of the Franco-Australian work on mapping environmental risks in the Indian Ocean, initiated during the visit of the President of the French Republic to Australia in 2018. A mapping of the eastern Indian Ocean (east of 75°E in longitude) was carried out by the Australians while the mapping of the western zone was done by the French. A first seminar to follow up this work was organised in June 2019 in Paris. The present seminar is the second part of these meetings.

Although Australian and Indian representatives were supposed to join the workshop, last-minute constraints prevented them from doing so. However, the presence of key actors from the Reunionese community working on these issues and of representatives of the Indian Ocean Commission allowed the discussions to focus on sub-regional cooperation and to understand in more detail the constraints of the institutions in the region.

The expectations of this seminar were as follows:

• Identify vectors for regional cooperation: operational cooperation of security actors, particularly concerning maritime security (fisheries resources) and scientific cooperation via more joint regional projects (on the model of the Indian Ocean Commission’s BRIO project or the French Barge Rousse project in the Pacific Ocean).
• Discuss possible synergies with Australian and Indian partners (this objective could not be achieved due to lack of representatives from these countries).
• Continue discussions on possible cooperation with local actors, to create dynamics at regional level. The PIROI Center could be an example of this, particularly in the setting up of a MOOC on human security issues related to climate change in the Southern Indian Ocean, which could bring together researchers from all countries.

Speaking Language: French