Chief of Staff, Royal Saudi Naval Forces Admiral Fahad Abdullah S Al-Ghofaily Visits India

Chief of Staff, Royal Saudi Naval Forces Admiral Fahad Abdullah S Al-Ghofaily came to India on a four day official visit from 10-13 January 2024.

Admiral Fahad Abdullah S Al-Ghofaily called on Adm. R Hari Kumar, the Chief of the Naval Staff, Indian Navy on 11 January 2024 at New Delhi and held discussions on collaborative mechanisms and measures to further strengthen navy to navy cooperation. He was received with a ceremonial Guard of Honour at the South Block Lawns.

Indian Navy cooperates with Royal Saudi Naval Force through various initiatives, which include operational interactions such as bilateral naval exercise Al Mohed Al Hindi, training and other maritime avenues. Indian Navy ships have been regularly undertaking port calls at various ports of Saudi Arabia. Indian Navy has also been interacting with Royal Saudi Naval Force in various multilateral for a, such as, IONS (Indian Ocean Naval Symposium), MILAN, CMF (Combined Maritime Forces) and DCoC-JA (Djibouti Code of Conduct-Jeddah Amendment), where both navies have been supporting each other to supplement maritime security in the region.

The visit of Admiral Al-Ghofaily included interaction with the chief of defence staff, defence secretary, chief of air staff and vice chief of army staff. During his visit, Admiral Al-Ghofaily also visited IFC-IOR at Gurugram and Southern Naval Command at Kochi. The visit was aimed at increasing naval cooperation between the two navies and has renewed the sense of commitment of two friendly maritime neighbours to address shared maritime challenges in the IOR.