Saudi Arabia and India agree to expand military ties after landmark visit

Saudi Arabia and India will develop their defence ties after a landmark assembly between Lieutenant Basic Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed al-Mutair and Indian military chief Basic Manoj Mukund Naravane, Indian media reported on Tuesday.

Mutair’s three-day go to to Delhi, the primary by a serving Royal Saudi land forces commander, underscored “a deepening bilateral defence cooperation between the 2 nations”, the Indian defence ministry stated. 

“Lieutenant Basic Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair was acquired by Basic MM Naravane, Chief of the Military Employees (COAS) of Indian Military on 15 February 2022 at South Block the place he was accorded a Ceremonial Guard of Honour. He met the COAS for important bilateral discussions and was briefed on safety elements,” the assertion stated. 

Mutair’s go to comes 14 months after Naravane travelled to Saudi Arabia in what was then the primary go to by an Indian military chief to the dominion.

The Print, an Indian digital publication, wrote that the transfer “seems to symbolize the following step within the latest shift in relations between India and Saudi Arabia, a nation that traditionally had shut ties with Pakistan”.

“Rifts between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have been beforehand reported in August 2020, over the Gulf state’s place on the scrapping of Article 370 within the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir,” The Print stated. 

Article 370 of the Indian structure gave particular standing to Jammu and Kashmir, a state previously administered by India. 

Mutair’s go to additionally comes roughly every week after Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, Saudi Arabia’s inside minister, travelled to Pakistan for what consultants say was an try and win over Pakistan’s navy and diplomatic assist in its combat in opposition to Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, the place Riyadh is main a navy coalition in assist of the federal government in opposition to the rebels. 

On Tuesday, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based mostly in Saudi Arabia, expressed deep concern for the plight of Muslims in India, following requires genocide by Hindu right-wing leaders in January and the continued ban on headscarves in faculties within the southern state of Karnataka. The OIC stated the continued incidents of violence in opposition to Muslims indicated rising Islamophobia in India.

Within the first three quarters of 2021, India grew to become Saudi Arabia’s second-largest buying and selling accomplice.

Based on the Indian authorities, ties with the dominion are predicated on a string of widespread pursuits, together with ending terrorism, financial improvement and tackling local weather change. 

“Defence diplomacy kinds one of many main tenets of the general relationship,” the division of defence stated.