The 7th edition of the Indian Ocean Conference was held at
- (a)Dhaka
- (b)New Delhi
- (c)Malé
- (d)Perth
Correct — D, Perth. The 7th Indian Ocean Conference was held at Perth in Western Australia on 9-10 February 2024, on the theme 'Towards a Stable and Sustainable Indian Ocean'. It was hosted by India Foundation together with India's Ministry of External Affairs, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Perth USAsia Centre and Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and it drew ministers and officials from well over a dozen countries — India's External Affairs Minister and Australia's Foreign Minister appeared together in a public conversation there. The exam was written weeks after the event, so this is a recall-of-the-news item with a very short fuse.
- (a)Dhaka — A capital of the northern Bay of Bengal rim and a natural-sounding host for a regional conference, but the 7th edition was held in Australia, not Bangladesh.
- (b)New Delhi — The plausible guess for anything India-led, but the whole point of this series is that it rotates through the region's capitals; the 2024 edition was deliberately taken to the ocean's eastern rim.
- (c)Malé — Malé was much in the news in early 2024 over the state of India-Maldives relations, which makes it a tempting pick, but it was not the venue of the 7th edition.
The Indian Ocean Conference is an annual track 1.5 gathering — governments plus think tanks — convened by India Foundation with the Ministry of External Affairs and a rotating host government. Its purpose is to give the Indian Ocean region a regular forum of its own, at which littoral and user states discuss maritime security, connectivity, trade and the sustainable use of the ocean. It sits alongside, rather than inside, the formal machinery of the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium.
Questions of this type are answered by remembering the host, not the theme, so build the habit of noting 'edition number plus city' whenever a recurring conference appears in the news. Perth also carries an argument worth knowing: Western Australia faces the Indian Ocean rather than the Pacific, and holding the conference there underlined that Australia counts itself an Indian Ocean state — which is the same reasoning behind the Indo-Pacific framing that India and Australia both use. As of the 2024 exam Perth was the most recent edition; the series has since moved on, with the 9th edition scheduled for Mauritius in April 2026, so do not carry 'Perth' forward as the current answer.
- 7th Indian Ocean Conference: Perth, Western Australia, 9-10 February 2024.
- Theme — 'Towards a Stable and Sustainable Indian Ocean'.
- Convened by India Foundation with India's MEA, Australia's DFAT, the Perth USAsia Centre and Singapore's RSIS.
- The 9th edition is set for Mauritius in April 2026, on collective stewardship of Indian Ocean governance.
- Assuming an India-convened conference must be held in India.
- Confusing the Indian Ocean Conference with IORA or IONS — three different bodies with overlapping members.
- Carrying an edition-and-city pairing forward after the series has moved on.
Almost always as 'the Nth edition was held at', so keep a running list of edition, year and host city for the recurring conferences and exercises.
Consider the following in respect of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS): 1. Inaugural IONS was held in India in 2015 under the chairmanship of the Indian Navy. 2. IONS is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region. Which of the above statements is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
The neighbouring institution, and the one most often confused with this conference. IONS is a navies-only forum; the Indian Ocean Conference is a ministers-and-scholars one.
With reference to 'Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC)', consider the following statements: 1. It was established very recently in response to incidents of piracy and accidents of oil spills. 2. It is an alliance meant for maritime security only.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(d) Neither 1 nor 2
The treaty-based body that the conference series sits alongside. IORA dates from 1997 and covers far more than security — the same broad agenda the Perth meeting took up.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Indian Ocean Conference is convened principally by which Indian organisation, working with the Ministry of External Affairs?
- (a)Observer Research Foundation
- (b)India Foundation
- (c)Indian Council of World Affairs
- (d)National Maritime Foundation
Answer(b) India Foundation — which has organised the series with the MEA and a rotating host government.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following is a voluntary forum of the navies of Indian Ocean littoral states, rather than a track 1.5 conference?
- (a)Indian Ocean Conference
- (b)Indian Ocean Naval Symposium
- (c)Indian Ocean Dipole
- (d)Indian Ocean Commission
Answer(b) Indian Ocean Naval Symposium — a voluntary initiative of the navies of the region, inaugurated at New Delhi in 2008.