Antony will be the first Indian defense minister to visit Saudi Arabia, and his team will comprise India's Defense Secretary Shashi K. Sharma, Vice Chief of Army Staff S. K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Satish Soni, and Air Vice Marshal M. R. Pawar.
“A special plane carrying Antony and his delegation will land in Riyadh on Monday afternoon,” said an Indian Embassy official, adding that this high-level visit will herald a new era of defense cooperation between Riyadh and New Delhi.
India and Saudi Arabia have not endorsed any defense agreement so far. However, the two countries have been having regular exchanges of defense related visits and interactions.
“In Riyadh, Antony will discuss with top Saudi officials possibilities for bolstering defense ties, military-to-military relations apart from the issue of terrorism and piracy in the region,” said a statement released by the Indian Ministry of Defense on Saturday.
The embassy official said Antony will hold discussions with some senior Saudi officials with an aim to pave the way for enhanced defense interaction, especially in areas of training and technical exchanges.
The visit is expected to enable both sides to engage in discussions on “areas where existing cooperation can be expanded to mutual benefit.”
Antony will also be interacting with the representatives of Indian community in Saudi Arabia, said the embassy official.
Over the years, relations between two countries have strengthened considerably owing to cooperation in regional affairs and trade.
Saudi Arabia is one of the largest suppliers of oil to India, which is one of the top trading partners and investor in the Kingdom. Last year in February, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, he added.
A defense delegation from India also visited Riyadh in October last year and expressed a keen interest to build strong bilateral defense ties based on the new strategic realities of Asia and the changing political alliances in the Middle East. The 16-member delegation from the National Defense College (NDC) of India called on the senior Saudi officials in Riyadh, visited local military facilities and discussed a range of issues of common concerns during their stay at that time.
The two countries are keen to promote closer relations further. In the past few years, India enhanced its military ties with the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia. India exchanged visits of its service chiefs and naval ships, and on the other hand, Saudi officers participated in the training programs at NDC also. Saudi Arabia is part of the Indian Ocean Naval initiative, which seeks to increase maritime cooperation bilaterally as well as among the navies of the world.
The NDC, located in New Delhi, is an institution of higher learning of the defense forces of India and is the only military institution that imparts knowledge on all aspects of national security and strategy. It also offers training to security personnel from other countries. The Indian Armed Forces are one of the world’s largest military forces, with roughly 1.32 million active standing army and 2.14 million reserve forces, thus giving India the third-largest active troops in the world.
