Saudi Arabia, India bolster defense ties with joint naval training

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A new initiative that saw Saudi naval cadets training with their Indian counterparts will help to strengthen defense relations between the two countries, the Indian Navy said on Monday, as it considers extending the program.

Fifty-five students and five instructors from the King Fahd Naval Academy in Saudi Arabia recently completed four weeks of training aboard two Indian vessels.

The students, from the main naval academy of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, traveled to a naval base in Kochi, Kerala last month and were attached to India’s First Training Squadron ships INS Tir and INS Sujata.

“Training onboard Indian Navy ships will … strengthen the existing bonds and build bridges of friendship among the future leadership of both the navies,” the Indian Navy told Arab News.

“The curriculum has been customized to impart both practical and theoretical training.”

The program, which covered coastal navigation and damage control exercises, aimed to enhance foreign cooperation and interoperability with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, the Indian Navy said.

It said training at the Indian Naval Academy and watchkeeping aboard Indian ships were “under consideration” as part of plans to extend the existing program.

The collaboration was the first of its kind between the two nations and marked their growing defense ties that also saw the chief of the Royal Saudi Land Forces visit India last year.

Lt. Gen. Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair’s visit was the first by a serving Saudi land forces commander to the South Asian country.

Kabir Taneja, a strategic affairs program fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi, said the staging of joint training and military exercises indicated a “great level of trust” between the two countries.

“It also helps to build confidence of cooperating during a real world crisis by building direct people to people contact between military leaderships and offices,” he told Arab News.

“The Saudi-India defense cooperation is growing steadily in a positive manner and, more importantly, this growth is reflecting on all tri-services, meaning air force, army and navy.

“This gives it a well-rounded color and makes it much more deep.” (AN)