India offers Akash defence missile system to UAE

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday offered the indigenous Akash air defence missile system to the UAE, even as the two countries decided to step-up their bilateral defence cooperation in fields ranging from military exercises and training exchanges to defence-industrial collaboration, joint projects, R&D and technology transfer.

The offer for the Akash system, which can intercept hostile aircraft, helicopters, drones and subsonic cruise missiles at a range of 25-km, was made at the delegation-level meeting between defence minister Rajnath Singh and the visiting Dubai crown prince and UAE deputy PM Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

This is in keeping with India’s ongoing thrust to export the Akash system, Pinaka multi-launch rocket systems and the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to “friendly countries”, especially in the Gulf and Asean regions.

While India has already exported BrahMos coastal batteries to the Philippines, Armenia has become the first foreign customer for the Akash, Pinaka and 155mm artillery guns.

India and the UAE at the meeting acknowledged that bilateral defence cooperation needs to be scaled up to match the progress made in other areas such as trade and business, in line with “the vision and determination of the two leaders”, PM Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Singh, describing the meeting as “productive”, said, “For India, the comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE is of immense priority. In the coming years, we are eager to work closely in areas such as defence cooperation, co-production and co-development projects, innovation and technology. Both India and the UAE are committed to work towards peace and prosperity in the region.”

The two leaders, who also discussed the current geopolitical developments, expressed “happiness” on the current defence cooperation through institutional mechanisms, military exercises, exchange of training programmes and the like. “They identified training exchanges as one of the key areas of defence cooperation which would enable understanding of each other’s defence ecosystems and accelerate strengthening of bilateral defence ties,” an official said.

The two sides decided that close collaboration between their defence industries should be an integral part of the bilateral cooperation and discussed opportunities for enhancing partnerships in defence manufacturing.

They welcomed the India-UAE Defence Partnership Forum, which has the potential to result in strategic joint ventures and co-production projects benefiting the two countries. “They also agreed to focus on complementarities in the Make-in-India and Make-in-Emirates initiatives,” the official said.

Significantly, apart from bilateral military exercises and initiatives, India and UAE have also teamed up with France to collaborate in a trilateral framework launched in 2022 in several areas including defence, technology, energy and environment, in tune with an ambitious roadmap chalked out by them.

In the military arena, the three countries in Dec last year had conducted a major air combat exercise “Desert Knight” over the Arabian Sea to strengthen trilateral defence cooperation and enhance military interoperability amid the ongoing geopolitical churn.

The navies of the three countries had also conducted their first-ever maritime partnership exercise to hone their combat skills against traditional as well as non-traditional threats through a wide spectrum of operations on the high seas in June 2023.

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