India and Norway signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing the India -Norway Ocean Dialogue in January 2019. A Task Force on Blue Economy for Sustainable Development was also commissioned by the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and the Norwegian Prime Minister Ms. Erna Solberg. In the MoU, the two sides emphasized “the need to move towards integrated and ecosystem-based approaches in the management of renewable and non-renewable natural resources and identified integrated ocean management as an area of mutual interest for future cooperation.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign affairs and the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences therefore agreed to extend the cooperation under this MoU by establishing the Norway-India Integrated Ocean Initiative for a period of five years. Norwegian Environment Agency through Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences are given the mandate to develop a draft framework for the Integrated Ocean Initiative. The parties will have to develop joint projects in close collaboration with relevant Norwegian stakeholders such as the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment and the Norwegian Environment Agency, research organizations in India and Norway etc. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) was identified as the first activity that would be taken up under this collaboration.
SCF Managing Director Dr. Deepak Apte was invited as a part of the delegation for a four-day consultation meeting that was held in Chennai and Puducherry from 3rd to 6th October 2022 jointly by National Center for Coastal Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Norwegian Environment Agency through Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Apte presented in a session on coastal tourism and chaired a session on CRZ and Ecology on Marine Spatial Planning.