At its 12th session held in Kish Island, Iran in March 2019, the Inter- governmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) decided to organise an Indian Ocean Wave Exercise (IOWave20) in 2020 and established a Task Team to plan and conduct the exercise. At its intersessional meeting held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 29 September 2019, the Task Team decided to conduct the IOWave20 exercise on 6, 13 and 20 October 2020.

IOWave20 will simulate Indian Ocean countries being put in a tsunami warning situation and require the National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) and the National and/or Local Disaster Management Offices (NDMO/LDMO) in each country to implement their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).