New Delhi to host 20-nation security meet this weekend: Tulsi Gabbard, CSIS and MI6 chiefs to attend

Top intelligence officials from 20 nations are scheduled to meet for a security conclave in New Delhi this weekend. The high-profile meeting will discuss global security concerns like the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle East, as well as deliberate on ways to enhance intelligence sharing to combat terrorism and transnational crimes.

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence in the United States; Daniel Rogers, Canada’s intelligence chief; and Richard Moore, Britain’s MI6 boss, will be among those expected to attend a security conclave, news agency PTI said on Tuesday, quoting unnamed sources.

Ajit Doval to chair

Ajit Doval, India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) will chair the conclave scheduled on March 16. Among other attendees are intelligence chiefs of Australia, Germany, New Zealand.

The country’s National Security Council Secretariat has hosted such security conclave in 2022. This year’s edition will be held on March 16, a day before the Raisina Dialogue, an annual conference on geopolitics and geo-economics.

Gabbard’s visit will be first high-level trip to India by a top official of the Donald Trump administration.

Gabbard, announced on Monday (US local time) that she has embarked on a multi-nation trip to the Indo-Pacific region. She said she will visit Japan, Thailand and India. Besides, attending the intelligence chiefs’ conclave, Gabbard is likely to address the Raisina Dialogue and hold a one-on-one meeting with NSA Doval. She is likely to arrive in India on March 15. 

Last month, Gabbard met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Washington DC.

It is Gabbard’s second foreign trip after assuming charge as the DNI. During her first international trip, she travelled to Germany last month to attend the Munich Security Conference.

Intelligence heads to converge in the national capital

The visit to India by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) chief Daniel Rogers is taking place amid frosty ties between the two countries over the Hardeep Singh Nijjar case.

India-Canada relations

 The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September 2023 of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar on Canadian soil.

New Delhi rejected Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”. The relations nosedived further in the second half of last year after Ottawa linked several Indian diplomats, including High Commissioner Sanjay Verma, to the murder of Najjar.

In October last, Canada expelled Verma and five other diplomats. In retaliation, New Delhi also expelled Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and five other diplomats. It is expected that the case may figure during Doval’s conversation with Rogers.