The Indian Ocean's placid waters hardly make headlines, but it is important to ensure that peace and security across its vast expanse are maintained, government leaders from several countries on its rim said at a conference yesterday.

The key artery of global commerce has been relatively free of the maritime tensions that have created ripples in the South China Sea and East China Sea in recent years, and must stay this way so trade can continue to flourish, they added.

One way, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, is for the countries in the Indian Ocean region to set up an order that is not dominated by a single nation.

This "Indian Ocean order" should emphasise freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes and decision-making through consensus, he added.

"The Indian Ocean region has an extraordinary opportunity to create something new in the global context and something historically unique," he said.

Wickremesinghe noted that the Indian Ocean region is increasingly mentioned in the same breath as the Asia-Pacific, proof of its rising global significance.

He was speaking at the welcome dinner of the Indian Ocean Conference, organised to discuss the strategic importance of an ocean which touches the shores of over 40 countries that are home to some 40 per cent of the world's people.

The two-day conference, which ends today, is jointly organised by four think-tanks - Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, the India Foundation, the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, and Sri Lanka's Institute of Policy Studies.

About 250 government officials, business leaders and academics from 21 countries are attending the conference at the Shangri-La Hotel.

(The Straits Times)