Abu Dhabi, Nov 7 (IANS): Visiting Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan held talks here with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh on further enhancing the countries' trade, investment and tourism ties.

Muraleedharan is in Abu Dhabi to attend the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) ministerial meeting,

In a tweet, he said: "Had a good conversation on the sidelines of IORA COM meeting with host H.E. Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh on further enhancing India-UAE trade, investment and tourism links.

"Offered India's strong support to UAE as it assumes Chair of IORA."

He also joined UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and leaders from other countries for a group photo on the eve of 19th IORA COM Meeting.

The UAE takes over from South Africa as IORA Chairman for a two year period to 2021.

The theme of the meeting is "Promoting a Shared Destiny and Path to Prosperity in the Indian Ocean".

Founded in 1997, the Association, whose headquarters are in Mauritius, is an inter-governmental organisation with 22 member states as well as nine dialogue partners.

These partners are countries situated outside the region but who have interests within it. It seeks to promote sustained growth and balanced development within the Indian Ocean region.

The Indian Ocean today has maritime trade routes that carry around half of the world's container ships, one third of the world's bulk cargo traffic and two thirds of world oil shipments, according to IORA, making the region an important lifeline for global trade and transport.

Nearly 2.7 billion people live in countries bordering the ocean.