UN General Assembly
1980

161. The current uncertainties in the political and security climate in the Indian Ocean as well as its environs, as evidenced by the frantic efforts to develop the Diego Garcia base, further underline the urgency of addressing ourselves to this central preoccupation. Both in the recently enlarged Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean, where we have welcomed the participation of the great Powers and major maritime users, and at the Conference on the Indian Ocean, to be convened during 1981 in Sri Lanka, India will clearly identify the key concern of the littoral and hinterland States in securing the effective implementation of the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace. We are firmly committed to the convening of the Conference in 1981 in Sri Lanka and expect that the decision of the present session of the Assembly will contribute to that goal.