Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has stated that in the coming years, India and the UAE are eager to work closely in areas such as defence cooperation, co-production and co-development projects, innovation and technology.

In a post on X, Singh, post his meeting with the Crown Prince of Dubai and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of UAE Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, wrote that both the countries are committed to work towards peace and prosperity in the region.

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The Crown Pince is on his maiden official visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders held a meeting at South Block, here today.

In a statement Ministry of Defence said that the two leaders expressed happiness on the current defence cooperation through institutional mechanisms, military exercises, and exchange of training programmes.

The Ministers acknowledged that defence cooperation needs to be scaled up to match the progress made in other areas such as trade and business. 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.

Discussion was also held on the Coast Guard-to-Coast Guard cooperation where both the countries committed to further deepen it by formalising the same through an MoU. The delegation also spoke about increasing defence industry collaboration and discussed opportunities for enhancing partnership in defence manufacturing.