Pathfinder participates in first meeting of BIMSTEC Track 1.5 Security Dialogue Forum

Admiral Dr. Jayanath Colombage, the Director for Indo-Lanka initiatives of Pathfinder Foundation participated at the first meeting of BIMSTEC Track 1.5 Dialogue Forum, organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. About 50 Government and senior military officials and scholars representing think tanks and research organisations from BIMSTEC countries participated in this day-long event to create a security dialogue for BIMSTEC countries. 

At the BIMSTEC Leaders’ Retreat held in Goa, India, on 16 October 2016, the leaders pledged to work collectively towards making BIMSTEC stronger, more effective, and result oriented. Further the leaders agreed to intensify their efforts to realise the objectives and purposes of BIMSTEC as outlined in the 1997 Bangkok Declaration, and reaffirm that BIMSTEC has considerable potential for economic and social development through mutually beneficial cooperation in the identified priority areas.

Recognising that terrorism continues to remain the single most significant threat to peace and stability in the region, the Leaders directed that a Meeting of the National Security Advisors/Security Advisors of the BIMSTEC Member States be held to discuss the issues further. In the recent past, issues concerning cyber security, peaceful uses of space, and maritime aspects of cooperation have assumed increased salience in the overall national security preparedness of its members.

Accordingly, the BIMSTEC National Security Advisers/Security Advisors held its first meeting in New Delhi, India on 21 March 2017. The meeting decided to establish a Track 1.5 BIMSTEC Security Dialogue Forum to promote and encourage a holistic dialogue on all security related matters among the BIMSTEC strategic community. This security dialogue forum was the outcome of these events. 

During this Security Dialogue forum papers were presented and discussions were centred around the themes such as counter-terrorism, cooperation on transnational crimes, and addressing violent extremism and radicalisation, maritime security, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), cyber security, cooperation in space, non-traditional security threats, especially focusing on Himalayan ecological system, food security, energy security, availability of water, threats posed by Non-Communicable Diseases and security threats posed by the climate change including changes, human resource development and capacity building as a cross-cutting activity straddling all six areas identified above. Admiral Dr. Jayanath Colombage presented a paper titled ‘Geo-Strategic Dynamics and Maritime Security in the Bay of Bengal’. Admiral Colombage spoke about the strategic significance of the Bay of Bengal in today’s strategic context, maritime threats from states and non-state actors in the region and the need to ensure freedom of navigation and a rule based maritime order in the Bay of Bengal region. He also suggested to establish a regional security architecture under the BIMSTEC focusing on enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness and a Code of Conduct for Major Maritime Users in the region.

The forum agreed the need for BIMSTEC to play a more active role in enhancing security in the region and recommended to establish collaborative mechanisms amongst the member states to study the areas discussed further and come up with practical suggestions for consideration of implementation by the member countries.