India likely to depute a former Vice Chief of Indian Navy as 1st Secy Gen of Colombo Security Conclave

India is likely to depute a former vice chief of the Indian Navy as the first secretary general of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) Secretariat in Colombo to give momentum to the initiative that has contributed to the stability in the Indian Ocean Region.

CSC, which started as a national security adviser-level dialogue between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, has received momentum since 2020 and taken a concrete shape with regular meetings and expansion to include Mauritius.

Bangladesh and Seychelles are observer states of CSC and there are plans to include Oman and Myanmar in CSC at a later stage.


Last August, CSC member states signed a charter and an MoU for the establishment of the CSC Secretariat. The Sri Lankan government hosted the signing ceremony in Colombo.

The CSC’s core objective is to promote regional security by addressing transnational threats and challenges of common concern to the member states. There are five pillars of cooperation under the CSC—maritime safety and security; countering terrorism and radicalisation; combating trafficking and transnational organised crime; cyber security and protection of critical infrastructure and technology; and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Last year, India hosted the second edition of Colombo Security Conclave seminar on ‘Exchange of information on legislations, cyber policies and incident mitigation’ and meeting of the joint working group on cyber security in collaboration with the National Forensics Science University at Gandhinagar.