Next week the Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane will be on a 4-day pay a visit to to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Besides meeting with his counterparts in these nations, he will also be meeting with other senior officials in each nations. According to sources, “In the first-ever visit by any Indian Army Chief to the Saudi Kingdom, he will address the Saudi National Defence College, besides other meetings with senior officials.” Gen Naravane’s pay a visit to to UAE comes close on the heels of the not too long ago concluded pay a visit to by the external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s pay a visit to to the area.
Sources have confirmed to The Spuzz Online, “From the Gulf Region countries including Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia have expressed interest in buying the Indo-Russian BrahMos Missile. The talks are still in the early stages and further discussions put on hold due to the global lockdown due to COVID-19.”
The Gulf nations which have been attempting to diversify their economies are finding extra interested in building their defence industries which are nonetheless in their nascent stage. For these nations, India is a preferred companion. Earlier this week, India had condemned a missile attack that targeted an Aramco oil facility positioned in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah.
What did MEA say?
“India stands in solidarity with the people of Saudi Arabia against such attacks,” the official spokesperson of MEA, Anurag Srivastava had stated in response to a query-connected to the attempted attack.
India’s GCC Outreach
India has been focusing on quite a few sectors for deepening cooperation in sectors which includes: Space, Maritime Awareness, Joint Defence Production & exports safety and trade cooperation. The primary interest of the Gulf nations is mostly in shipbuilding, munitions, modest arms, unmanned platforms and specially developed armoured cars. They are largely interested in Russian, Chinese and Western platforms and systems.
India & UAE
As has been reported by The Spuzz Online, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been to the UAE 3 occasions and has been conferred with the highest honour Sheikh Zayed medal.
UAE is playing a pretty important part in the Persian Gulf crisis and for India’s effectively-getting peace in West Asia is pretty vital. The Army Chief is probably to go over the predicament, the US-Iran relations as effectively as counter-terrorism cooperation.
When final year the UAE had announced an investment of $ 75 billion in India, the leadership of Saudi Arabia had raised their investment to about $ one hundred billion and had also invited the Indian firms to discover their prospective.
UAE has inked defence cooperation agreements with India. Also, the Indian Ordnance Factories had inked an agreement to provide ammunition to the Emirati Military.
The Gulf nation has expressed interest in the `Made in India’ Akash surface-to-air missile technique.
Has interest in the world’s quickest anti-ship cruise missile — BrahMos, which is Indo-Russian joint venture.
It is also hunting at the indigenous Astra 70-km variety air-to-air missile. This can be fitted on the French fighter jet `Mirage’ which the Air Force of that nation is flying.
Update
An Abu Dhabi primarily based firm Caracal International had been declared as L1 for the procurement of Indian Army’s Close Quarter Carbines (CQB). However, the order from the Indian Army had not been placed and the RfP for 93,895 CQBs was cancelled. According to reports, the firm is promising to manufacture the CQBs in India and this, according to sources will be conveyed to the Army Chief subsequent week. This was also raised for the duration of the not too long ago concluded pay a visit to of the external affairs minister to UAE.
India & Saudi Arabia
Both sides have currently signed an agreement for the joint defence production of numerous elements. The Kingdom has been keen on setting up its personal manufacturing bases, nonetheless, has not been thriving due to the lack of technical knowledge and skilled workers.
Significance of the pay a visit to
The pay a visit to is important as it comes at a time when the globe is nonetheless dealing with the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 and India and Chinese forces have been in a standoff because May 2020.
In the area, Bahrain is a host to the US 5th fleet and also plays a pretty critical part in anti-piracy and counter-terrorism along with India. Bahrain also holds the SHADE (Shared Awareness and De-confliction) activities.
In 2019, each India and Saudi Arabia had carried out their initially-ever joint naval exercising.
Since India is a classic player in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Saudi Arabia is in search of a presence in the area. For additional enhancing maritime safety and a protected passage for international trade, each the nations have decided to operate collectively with other Indian Ocean Rim Countries. And each are operating towards a “Comprehensive Security Dialogue”.