Bay of Bengal Climate, Peace and Security Dialogue

Colombo workshop advances regional climate, peace and security action

Held in Colombo on 3–4 August, the Bay of Bengal Climate, Peace and Security Dialogue successfully brought together a diverse and highly relevant group of regional and international experts, practitioners and government representatives. Participants included representatives from BIMSTEC, IORA, research institutions and civil society, alongside officials from a wide range of Sri Lankan ministries and public agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs. The workshop opened with a keynote address from the Secretary General of BIMSTEC, underscoring the importance of stronger regional cooperation at a critical juncture for the Bay of Bengal.

Organised by the Toda Peace Institute (TPI) in partnership with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) and adelphi, and with UNDP Sri Lanka as a knowledge partner, the workshop built on the action points identified at the 2025 Canberra TPI workshop on Climate, Peace and Security. It created an important South Asia led space for connecting scientific evidence, policy perspectives, practitioner experience and locally grounded knowledge. Across the two days, participants examined how environmental degradation, declining fish stocks, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, climate change and extreme weather interact with peace and security dynamics across the Bay of Bengal. Discussions also highlighted the consequences for coastal livelihoods, women and marginalised communities, and the need to ensure that these perspectives inform both research and policy.

A central success of the workshop was its emphasis on moving from diagnosis to action. Participants identified priority research and data gaps, reviewed existing regional cooperation mechanisms and considered how climate, peace and security approaches could be integrated more effectively into fisheries governance, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and regional dialogue. A hands on tabletop scenario exercise then enabled participants to explore three possible trajectories for the Bay of Bengal between 2026 and 2030, ranging from worsening resource pressures and maritime tensions to cooperative transformation. By testing different futures, participants identified key triggers, examined where preventive action could interrupt escalation and developed prioritised, no regrets responses that remain valuable across uncertain conditions.

The workshop culminated in the Colombo Recommendations, a set of actionable priorities for regional climate, peace and security engagement in South Asia. The recommendations call for stronger regional cooperation and policy integration, improved evidence and early warning, greater attention to fisheries governance and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and more systematic inclusion of gender and community perspectives. They also establish priorities for future research and programming, including locally led adaptation, community resilience, conflict sensitive disaster risk reduction and stronger links between knowledge producers and policy makers. Together, these outcomes provide a practical basis for continued engagement through regional actors such as BIMSTEC, and future research and programming partnerships. The Colombo Recommendations support progress towards more coherent, locally grounded and action oriented regional agenda for climate, peace and security in South Asia.