The National Defence and Security Council ( my, အမျိုးသား ကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် လုံခြုံရေး ကောင်စီ, ; abbreviated NDSC) is an eleven-member

national security council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

responsible for security and defence affairs in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. Though the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

is the

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

government of Myanmar Myanmar ( also known as Burma) operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests. Po ...

, the 2008 Constitution reserves certain important executive powers for the NDSC and certain actions of the president require approval by the NDSC. The council is typically controlled by Tatmadaw members. NDSC was formed on 31 March 2011. Of the 11 members, the Commander-in-chief appointed 5 members and controls 6 votes. The Tatmadaw directly reports to NDSC. The NDSC's existence is enshrined in Chapter V of the

Constitution of Myanmar The Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ, links=, transli ...

. The NDSC's constitutionally enshrined roles include expansive powers: * Recommend pardonees for the President to grant amnesty * Approve the President's act of severing foreign diplomatic relations * Coordinate with the President to take military action against aggressors * Approve the Tatmadaw's ability to conscript citizens * Nominate a candidate for

Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services The commander-in-chief of Defence Services () is the commanding officer of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar. Since a state of emergency was declared following the 2021 military coup d'état, the commander-in-chief has been the highes ...

, to be appointed by the president * Coordinate with the President in declaring a state of emergency * Exercise legislative, executive and judiciary powers during a state of emergency * Exercise sovereign power during a state of emergency

Members

According to the Constitution, NDSC's membership must consist of the following individuals: * President * First Vice-President * Second Vice-President * Speaker of the

Pyithu Hluttaw The Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့ လွှတ်တော်, ; House of Representatives) is the ''de jure'' lower house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 440 members, of whic ...

* Speaker of the

Amyotha Hluttaw The Amyotha Hluttaw ( my, အမျိုးသားလွှတ်တော်, ; House of Nationalities) is the ''de jure'' upper house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 224 members ...

* Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services * Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services * Minister for Defence * Minister for Foreign Affairs * Minister for Home Affairs * Minister for Border Affairs

Members

National Defence and Security Council of Myint Swe (2021–present)

National Defence and Security Council of Win Myint (2018–2021)

National Defence and Security Council of Htin Kyaw (2016–2018)

National Defence and Security Council of Thein Sein (2011–2016)

References

See also