India, Saudi Arabia discuss naval cooperation, defence production opportunities

India and Saudi Arabia discuss navy cooperation, joint ventures in defense production, and training during official visit.

India and Saudi Arabia discussed ways to enhance navy-to-navy cooperation, joint training and opportunities for joint ventures in defence production, Chief of Staff, Royal Saudi Naval Forces Admiral Fahad Abdullah S Al-Ghofaily held discussion with top military brass on his four-day visit. On Thusrday, he held talks with Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar and Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan.

“Discussions held on issues of mutual strategic interests, bilateral defence cooperation, opportunities for joint ventures in defence production and technology collaboration and also joint military training, duly affirming stronger ties between both nations,” the Integrated Defence Staff said on social media on the discussions between Gen Chauhan and Adm Al-Ghofaily.

Adm Al-Ghofaily, is on a four day official visit to India from January 10 to 13.

In discussions with Adm. Kumar the two discussed collaborative mechanisms and measures to further strengthen Navy to Navy cooperation, the Navy said in a statement. “The extant visit by the Chief of Staff, Royal Saudi Naval Forces is aimed to increase naval cooperation between the two navies and has renewed the sense of commitment of two friendly maritime neighbours to address shared maritime challenges in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR),” it stated.

Earlier on Thursday, he was received with a ceremonial Guard of Honour at the South Block lawns.

Indian Navy cooperates with Royal Saudi Naval Force through various initiatives, which include operational interactions such as bilateral naval exercise Al Mohed Al Hindi, training and other maritime avenues. Indian Navy ships have been regularly undertaking port calls at various ports of Saudi Arabia. Indian Navy has also been interacting with Royal Saudi Naval Force in various multilateral fora – Ex Milan, Indian Ocean Naval Symposium,, Combined Maritime Forces and Djibouti Code of Conduct - Jeddah Amendment (DCoC-JA), where both navies have been supporting each other to supplement maritime security in the region, the Navy stated.

During this visit, Adm Al-Ghofaily would also visit the Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for IOR at Gurugram and the Southern Naval Command at Kochi.