Over the past decade, India-Saudi Arabia defence cooperation has been strengthened

Army Chief General MM Naravane on Wednesday held a telephonic interaction with Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, Commander, Royal Saudi Land Forces, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and discussed aspects of bilateral defence cooperation.

“General MM Naravane #COAS had telephonic interaction with Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, Commander, Royal Saudi Land Forces, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and discussed aspects of bilateral Defence Cooperation,” said a tweet of the Additional Directorate General of Public Information, IHQ of MoD (Army).

Over the past decade, India-Saudi Arabia bilateral defence cooperation has been strengthened. In February, 2012, to give a boost to the defence ties between the two countries, India and Saudi Arabia had decided to set up a Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation to work out the contours of the relationship.

During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Saudi Arabia in October 2019, India and Saudi Arabia had signed the agreement on the Strategic Partnership Council. PM Modi had said that the agreement would strengthen the already robust relations between India and Saudi Arabia.

Also, India and Saudi Arabia have a Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation that holds regular meetings. The two nations have identified a number of areas of mutual interest and cooperation in the field of defence and security.

In December 2020, Army Chief General Naravane had visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to take forward the excellent defence cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and India. He had multiple meetings with senior functionaries of security establishment and had exchanged views on various defence related issues.

In February last year, India and Saudi Arabia agreed to establish a Joint Working Group for regular dialogues covering various fields such as political, consular, Haj, defence, security, culture, health and education.