The International CLIVAR Project Office (ICPO) was invited to attend the No. 244 Shuangqing Forum on 'Physical and Biogeochemical Processes and their Interaction in the Indian Ocean under the Global Changes', which was organised by National Nature Science Foundation of China on 26-27 October 2019 in Beijing. 36 Chinese scientists working on the Indian Ocean and Tibetan Plateau sciences and representatives from departments of Geoscience, Lifescience, Chemical Science and Policy Bureau of the National Natural Science Foundation in China (NSFC) attended the forum. The aim of the forum was to synthesize the critical fundamental scientific issues in the Indian Ocean that are of urgent need to be addressed, which was expected to direct the funding priorities in the next 5 to 10 years. Interdisciplinary cooperation was encouraged throughout the forum, with focuses on the Indian Ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere interaction; the biogeochemical circulations and the interaction between the Indian Ocean and the Third Pole (Tibetan Plateau).

Ms. Jing Li from ICPO made a presentation on ‘CLIVAR in the Indian Ocean’, by highlighting the scientific priorities of CLIVAR in next decade, and the initiatives in the Indian Ocean that could provide an international perspective and potential cooperation with China, for example, the implementation of Indian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS)-2, the tropical basins interaction, the Indonesia Throughflow and maritime continent, interaction with biogeochemical and biological community in the Indian Ocean, as well as the cooperation with Third Pole Environment (TPE) programme which was initiated by China.