The first meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation was held here today. The 11-member Saudi delegation was headed by Maj Gen Suleiman Saleh Al-Khalifa, Chief of the Armed Forces Operations of Saudi Arabia. The Indian delegation was headed by Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence.
The establishment of the Joint Committee had been decided during the meeting of the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony with the Saudi Defence Minister (and now also Crown Prince) Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, during the Defence Minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia in February, 2012. The Joint Committee was mandated to formulate a programme to develop areas of cooperation between the defence establishments of both countries.
During the meeting both sides expressed their interest in further enhancing defence exchanges and interactions between their armed forces. Proposals for exchange of high level visits, training exchanges and functional exchanges in various areas were discussed and will be finalized over the coming weeks.