By Irfan
In a historic first, Commander of Royal Saudi Land Forces Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair arrived in New Delhi on an official visit on 14 February 2022. The three day visit is the first ever by a Saudi Land forces Chief to India and is a testament of the growing bilateral defence ties between the two regional powers.
On 15 February, the Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane received the Saudi Land forces Commander in the South Block lawns of Ministry of Defence. The visiting general officer was thereafter presented with a customary Guard of Honour. After the initial exchange of pleasantries, the Chiefs along with their respective delegations proceeded for the discussions and meetings for reviewing the present state of Military cooperation aspects and issues of mutual interest. The Saudi General will also be meeting with the hierarchy of Indian Armed forces as part of his visit programme later during the day.
The visit is seemingly important due to the warm personal relations shared between the two Army Chiefs.
Building ahead on the relations post the historic visit of Chief of Indian Army in December 2020, both the Land Forces Commanders had regular telephonic exchanges to monitor the progress of mutually agreed roadmap of bilateral relations. The defence relations between the two countries have seen a notable upswing in the last year with a series of high level interactions and the first bilateral Naval exercise “Al Mohed-Al Hindi” conducted in August 2021 on the Eastern Coast of the Kingdom at Jubail.
Despite COVID induced travel restrictions, officers from both Royal Saudi Armed Forces and Indian Armed Forces are undergoing training in the various military institutes of the two countries. This year we expect more exchanges and training activities to be conducted between the two friendly countries. New areas of cooperation are being mutually identified to include Intelligence Sharing, Counter Terrorism, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security. Also on the agenda during the discussions between the two Chiefs will be the first ever land forces exercise to be conducted in the second half of 2022.
As India celebrates 75 years of establishing its diplomatic relations with the Kingdom in 2022, Defence Cooperation remains one of the key pillars of bilateral relations between the two countries. The vision of His Majesty King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud to provide a major impetus to the defence relations, which he himself alleviated to a new level by signing the Memorandum of Defence Cooperation in 2014 as the Crown Prince and Defence Minister, has witnessed numerous positive initiatives under his guidance and directions of the Crown Prince His Royal Highness Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Today, both Indian and Saudi Arabia are striving to be Strategic defence partners being major regional players and sharing common security concerns facing the region.
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