Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar (L) and Admiral Fahad bin Abdullah S Al-Ghofaily during their meeting in New Delhi, on January 11, 2024. (India Sentinels photo via special arrangement.)
New Delhi: Admiral Fahad bin Abdullah S Al-Ghofaily, chief of staff, Royal Saudi Navy, has started his four-day official visit to India from Tuesday. The visit is aimed at increasing naval cooperation between the Indian Navy and the Royal Saudi Navy to address their shared maritime challenges in the Indian Ocean Region.
Adm Al-Ghofaily called on the chief of Indian Navy, Admiral R Hari Kumar, on Thursday, at New Delhi and held discussions on collaborative mechanisms and measures to further strengthen the cooperation between the two navies. Before the meeting, Adm Al-Ghofaily was received with a ceremonial guard of honour at the South Block.
Indian Navy cooperates with its Saudi maritime counterpart through various initiatives, which include operational interactions, such as bilateral naval exercise (like Exercise Al Mohed Al Hindi conducted in May 2023), training, and other maritime avenues. Indian Navy ships have been regularly undertaking port calls at various ports of Saudi Arabia.
The Indian Navy has also been interacting with the Royal Saudi Navy –also known as Royal Saudi Naval Forces or Al-Quwwat al-Bahriyah al-Arabiyah as-Su’udiyah – in various multilateral forums, like the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, MILAN, CMF (Combined Maritime Forces), and Djibouti Code of Conduct-Jeddah Amendment, in which both navies have been supporting each other to supplement maritime security in the region.
During his visit, Adm Al-Ghofaily will also meet the chief of defence staff, General Anil Chauhan; the defence secretary, Aramane Giridha; the chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari; and the vice-chief of army staff, Lieutenant General MV Suchindra Kumar.
The Saudi Arabian navy chief will also visit the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) at Gurugram and Southern Naval Command at Kochi during his visit.
