New Delhi: India and the UAE on Wednesday held a key bilateral defence meeting here during which the two sides agreed to “elevate defence ties” to match the growing momentum in areas such as trade, investment and social relations.
The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and the UAE’s Under Secretary of Defense, Lt General Ibrahim Nasser M Al Alawi, who is leading a high-level defence delegation on a two-day official visit to India, officials said.
India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral defence cooperation during the 13th India-UAE Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) meeting, held at the secretary-level for the first time, the Indian defence ministry said in a statement.
“Both sides agreed to elevate defence ties to match the growing momentum in areas such as trade, investment, and social relations,” it said.
The two sides agreed to enhance military training cooperation and discussed their respective training requirements. India also offered to provide customised training courses tailored to the UAE’s needs, they said.
They agreed to cooperate on maritime security through real-time information sharing.
To explore new avenues of defence collaboration, both countries held discussions on training cooperation, defence industrial partnerships, and service-to-service engagements, the statement said.
They agreed to pursue joint manufacturing initiatives, including models similar to the collaboration between ICOMM (of India) and CARACAL (of the UAE), for small arms production, it added.
The potential for co-developing next-generation defence technologies in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence was also discussed, alongside opportunities in shipbuilding, refits, upgrades, and maintenance of common platforms, the ministry said.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Indian Coast Guard and the UAE National Guard to establish a framework for enhanced cooperation in search and rescue operations, pollution response, anti-piracy efforts, and related maritime security domains, officials said. In the run-up to the JDCC, India and the UAE also held the fourth Army-to-Army, 9th Navy-to-Navy, and inaugural Air-to-Air Staff Talks from July 28-29. These deliberations focused on enhancing military exercises, training, and subject matter expert exchange, it said.
With agency inputs