'Colombo Defence Seminar' in September at the BMICH

The annual international Defence Seminar' will be held on September 1st and 2nd at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), the army said. 

The conference is organized by the Sri Lanka Army in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence since 2011 with the aim of setting up a platform of rich intellectual interaction on intricacies of national, regional and international interests.

The Defence Seminar will be renamed as 'Colombo Defence Seminar' from this year. Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Eng. Karunasena Hettiarchchi is scheduled to make the keynote address on the inaugural day. This year's theme will be 'Soft Power and Its Influence on Global Issues'.

The two day international conclave is expected to be attended by 800 invitees including 125 foreign participants from 71 countries. The 'Colombo Defence Seminar' is set to shed light on a wide spectrum of global and regional concerns and would mark a turning point in this sphere of global interest.

Renowned scholars, experts, think tanks, diplomats and military leaders from the participating countries including the host nation are also scheduled to make presentations during the sessions in a number of thematic topics including 'Concept of Power', 'Soft Power and Its Varied Impact', 'Soft Power', 'Peace-Building and Armed Forces' and' Influence of Soft Power on Global Issues'.

The Commander of the Army Chrishanthe De Silva headed the press briefing while a number of senior army officers were also present.