Ajit Doval hosts 5th BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs' meeting in Delhi; members adopt key maritime security guidelines

The NSAs and Heads of Delegations held extensive discussions on practical and result-oriented measures to strengthen regional security.

Updated on: Jul 16, 2026, 16:31:25 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Thursday hosted the 5th Meeting of the BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs in New Delhi, bringing together delegations from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand to discuss regional security cooperation and emerging strategic challenges.

The 5th Meeting of the BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs was held in New Delhi on 16 July 2026.

The meeting underscored the growing importance of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) as a bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia, two of the world's most dynamic regions connected through the Indian Ocean. Over the years, BIMSTEC has expanded cooperation across key sectors, including regional security, disaster management, transport and trade connectivity, technology and people-to-people exchanges.

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During the meeting, the BIMSTEC Secretary General presented a comprehensive overview of the progress made in the security sector and briefed member states on developments across multiple areas of cooperation under the regional grouping.

The NSAs and head of delegations held extensive discussions on practical and result-oriented measures to strengthen regional security. Deliberations focused on enhancing cooperation to combat terrorism and organised crime, improving cybersecurity, ensuring maritime and energy security, boosting regional connectivity and strengthening disaster management mechanisms. The participants also exchanged views on addressing new and emerging security threats confronting the region.

A key outcome of the meeting was the adoption of guidelines for the maritime component of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). The guidelines are expected to enable BIMSTEC member states to coordinate and undertake relief operations across the region more effectively and in a time-bound manner during natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies.

The member states also endorsed a set of guiding principles for maritime law enforcement agencies during interactions at sea. These principles are aimed at improving predictability, promoting safety and enhancing coordination among maritime agencies of BIMSTEC countries during operational engagements.

As BIMSTEC prepares to mark its 30th anniversary next year, the participating NSAs reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening regional collaboration and institutional capacity.

They reiterated the need for greater knowledge-sharing and closer cooperation to build resilience against traditional and non-traditional security challenges while reinforcing the region's collective ability to respond to evolving threats.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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