India And Saudi Arabia Explore New Avenues Of Defence Cooperation

India and Saudi Arabia talked about ways to improve their defense and strategic cooperation. One idea was to hold more joint military training drills and share technology to help the defense industry work together. The problems came up in the talks on Tuesday in Riyadh between Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State for Defense, and Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia.

Bhatt also met Khaled Al-Bayari, who is the assistant minister of defense in Saudi Arabia. They talked about ways to improve their long-standing and wide-ranging defense cooperation.

The talks happened as worries around the world grew about what was happening in West Asia, especially the attacks on commercial cargo ships by Houthi rebels backed by Iran.

The defense ministry said the talks were mostly about finding ways to work together on things that were important to both sides, like expanding the types of training drills they do together and sharing technology and knowledge.

Bhatt is in Riyadh as the head of the Indian team at the World Defense Show (WDS) 2024, which is still going on.

The five-day event, which started on February 4, is showing off the newest developments in defense technology and giving the companies that are taking part a great chance to work together with people from other countries.

A meeting was also held between the minister of state for defense and Ahmad Abdulaziz Al-Ohali, who is the governor of Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Military Industries.

“They discussed the way ahead towards collaborating in varied areas of defence production, Research & Development, besides niche technologies,” the ministry stated in a release.