Sri Lanka will host a two-day defence seminar which will focus on a wide spectrum of global and regional issues including the political changes in Pakistan, according to the Lankan Army chief.
Addressing the media on the 8th defence seminar which was launched as an annual event after the government troops defeated the LTTE in 2009, Sri Lankan Army chief Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake said the event will be attended by top military brass from India, China, Pakistan, the US and other countries.
The 'Colombo Defence Seminar - 2018' is scheduled to be held on August 30-31 and deliberate on the theme, 'Security in an Era of Global Disruptions'.
"We segmented the sessions in such a way that different groups at the end of the second day would have the chance of producing their own findings through syndicate presentations," Lt Gen Senanayake said yesterday.
He said that Asia Pacific region, being very much prone to natural disasters, would pave way for a collective understanding on issues confronting all nations in the region and the world at large.
"Threats are always changing and different capacities are needed to face them. That is why the Sri Lanka Army, moving away from the conventional, is trying to make it a capacity-based one," he added.
"We can also discuss how Pakistan's military - a very powerful military - will work with the new government (of Imran Khan)," he told reporters when asked about the political changes in Pakistan.
President Maithripala Sirisena will be the Chief Guest of the inaugural ceremnoy while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would deliver the keynote address.
The army in a statement said this year's topic "underlines the importance of contemporaneous security issues that appear to be increasingly interconnected."
In 2017, over 800 delegates including 77 foreign experts from 35 countries participated in the discussions that stimulated critical thinking on Countering Violent Extremism: Global Trends'.
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