Member nations of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC)—comprising India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Mauritius, along with observer states Bangladesh and Seychelles—have successfully concluded a three-day maritime security tabletop exercise at the Indian Navy’s Eastern Naval Command headquarters in Visakhapatnam, according to reporting by The Hindu.
The multilateral exercise focused on simulating coordinated regional responses to asymmetric maritime threats, maritime terrorism, narcotics trafficking along oceanic transit corridors, illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and coordinated humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Naval officers and maritime security experts engaged in tactical scenario planning, evaluating real-time operational communication protocols and cross-agency information exchange between regional Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) centers, including the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram. The exercise tested rapid-response coordination between naval ships and coast guard aircraft during multi-agency maritime search-and-rescue operations.
Defense analysts observe that the Colombo Security Conclave has emerged as a cornerstone multilateral framework for regional maritime security in South Asia. By deepening operational interoperability between littoral states, the conclave reinforces collective security and maintains peace and stability across strategic international shipping lanes.
