7th Indian Ocean Conference was addressed by EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar

Current Context: The 7th Indian Ocean Conference was held in Perth, Australia on February 9-10, 2024.This conference is a flagship consultative forum for countries in the Indian Ocean Region, organized annually by the Ministry of External Affairs, in association with the India Foundation.

• The theme of this edition of the conference was "Towards a Stable and Sustainable Indian Ocean".
• External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar addressed the inaugural session of the Conference, along with H.E Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka, Ms Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, and Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore.
• The conference brought together delegations led by Ministers from over 22 countries and senior officials from 16 countries and 6 multilateral organizations.
• Over 400 social and corporate leaders, policy practitioners, scholars, professionals, and media personnel from about 40 countries actively engaged in the Conference.

Question:

Q.1 How many countries were represented by Ministers at the 7th Indian Ocean Conference?
a. 16
b. 22
c. 40
d. 6