National Defence and Security Council (Myanmar)

National Defence and Security Council
အမျိုးသားကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီ
Agency overview
Formed30 March 2011 (2011-03-30)
JurisdictionGovernment of Myanmar
HeadquartersNay Pyi Taw, Myanmar
Agency executives
WebsiteOfficial website

The National Defence and Security Council (Burmese: အမျိုးသား ကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် လုံခြုံရေး ကောင်စီ, Burmese pronunciation: [əmjóðá kàkwɛ̀jé n̥ḭɴ lòʊɴdʑòʊɴjé kàʊɴsì]; abbreviated NDSC) is an eleven-member national security council responsible for security and defence affairs in Myanmar. Though the president is the chief executive of the government of Myanmar, the 2008 Constitution reserves certain important executive powers for the NDSC and certain actions of the president and the Tatmadaw (military) require approval by the NDSC. Of the 11 members, the commander-in-chief of defence services appoints 5 members and controls 6 votes. The NDSC's existence is enshrined in Chapter V of the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, and it was formed on 31 March 2011.

A meeting of the NDSC can only be called by the president, which was never done during the National League for Democracy's 2016–2021 time in power. After President Win Myint refused to call a meeting of the NDSC to address the Tatmadaw's baseless allegations of massive voter fraud in the 2020 general election, the Tatmadaw under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing executed a coup on 1 February 2021, removing Win Myint and installing Myint Swe as Acting President so he could call a meeting of the NDSC and transfer state power to Min Aung Hlaing. The NDSC has since continued to serve as the purported basis of legitimacy for Min Aung Hlaing's military dictatorship. Since the state of emergency expired in 2025 and the State Administration Council was dissolved, Min Aung Hlaing has ruled directly through the NDSC.

The opposition National Unity Government designated the NDSC a terrorist organization in November 2025.