National security adviser set to visit Delhi

Interim government’s National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman will travel to New Delhi on 19 November to join a high-level gathering of National Security Advisers from the Indo-Pacific region.

He is scheduled to participate in the seventh meeting of Colombo Security Conclave (CSC), which will be held in the Indian capital on 20 November.

The two-day visit follows an invitation extended by India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in late October.

The Colombo Security Conclave is a key multilateral forum for countries in the Indian Ocean region to strengthen coordination on regional security challenges.

Its current members are India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Mauritius and Bangladesh, with Seychelles participating as an observer.

Bangladesh became a full member of the platform in 2024. That August, member states convened in Colombo to adopt a formal charter and sign an MoU establishing a permanent CSC Secretariat in Sri Lankan capital.

The forum focuses on bolstering cooperation across five priority areas: maritime safety and security, counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism, combating human trafficking and transnational organised crime, cybersecurity and the protection of critical infrastructure and technology and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Created to enhance maritime security and counterterrorism collaboration while improving the collective ability to confront transnational threats, the conclave supports intelligence sharing, joint policy coordination and capability development among member states.

While the permanent secretariat is based in Colombo, CSC meetings; including those at NSA level, are hosted on a rotational basis by member countries.