New Delhi: The 11th India-UAE Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) meeting on May 25 discussed and focussed on identifying new areas for setting up joint ventures and further expand the scope and complexities of the existing joint exercises between the armed forces of both sides. The JDCC meeting was held in New Delhi.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its statement said that the visiting Chief of the Force Development Authority at Ministry of Defence, UAE Major General Staff Hassan Mohamed Sultan Bani Hammad met Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar. The meeting of UAE General with India’s Defence Secretary focused on deepening defence cooperation between the two countries and the Defence Secretary was also briefed about the 11th meeting of India-UAE Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) held earlier.
The UAE delegation also met with Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Policy Planning and Force Development) Lt Gen Atulya Solankey at Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff and later interacted with Indian defence Industries and also visited Bharat Electronics Limited, located in NCR.
The JDCC meeting was co-chaired by Joint Secretary (Armed Forces) Dinesh Kumar and Chief of the Force Development Authority at Ministry of Defence, UAE. The progress made in military-to-military engagements, joint exercises with the armed forces, R&D, Expert Exchanges, and deepening Industry Cooperation were all reviewed.
The next meeting of the JDCC is expected to be held in UAE in 2023 and the dates will be confirmed later. The Defence ministries of both countries review and provide guidance in all aspects of bilateral defence cooperation through JDCC meeting.
Over the years, the cooperation between the two countries has witnessed significant progress. In 2020 and 2021, former Army Chief Gen MM Naravane and the former Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria had visited that country respectively. Earlier, the Gulf nation had helped in overflight of Rafales fighter jets from France to India and had provided support by sending its own Airbus MRTT refuelling aircraft to support new Rafale fighters on their journey over 7,000-km flight from France to India. Additionally, the IDEX and NAVDEX 2021 exhibitions saw India’s significant participation along with IAF’s participation in Dubai Air Show 2021 and multinational air combat exercise “Desert Flag’’.
According to reports, UAE was among one of the first countries from the Gulf region to express interest in BRAHMOS and the indigenous Akash Missile and discussions related to the BRAHMOS Missile is in advanced stages.
