India, Saudi Arabia exploring joint ventures in defence sector

Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan. File
| Photo Credit: X handle of Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan

Saudi Arabia is on top of the list of India’s close friends and allies and so is keen to share a number of defence technologies that have been localised in recent years, Indian envoy in Riyadh Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan said recently addressing a defence industry seminar. The remarks show how defence-industrial cooperation is now a major focus area between the two countries as they deepen defence cooperation and now exploring joint ventures and collaborations.

Highlighting the congruencies between Saudi’s Vision 2030 under which it is targeting to localise 50% of its defence spending, and India’s Make in India initiative, the envoy highlighted that there are lot of investment opportunities in the defence sector in India. Early this year, Saudi Arabia signed a $250 mn contract for ammunition from Munitions India Limited, a Defence Public Sector Undertaking.

“Defence cooperation between the two countries are always based on very high level of mutual trust and confidence. And I am happy to note that our two countries do enjoy that level of trust and confidence and that’s what we are interested to share a large number of defence products and technologies with our friendly country, Saudi Arabia,” Dr. Khan told the seminar end-November, as an Indian delegation visited Riyadh.

Saudi defence companies displayed a strong interest in fostering partnerships in critical sectors such as shipbuilding, electronics, and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity, officials said on the discussions during the seminar.

Focus on indigenisation

As we know, India and Saudi Arabia traditionally have always been the largest importers of defence hardware, Dr. Khan noted, stating that now both countries are trying to localise defence production to the extent possible. “In the last few years, we have made a lot of progress. But this progress has been extremely time consuming, resource consuming and painstakingly slow. But right now, we are at a level where we have a large number of inventory where we have localised production. And these technologies, we can share only with our very close friends and allies. Saudi Arabia, I can assure you, is on top of the list,” he stated.

India, Saudi relations have seen a huge upswing in the last decade with defence and security emerging as one of the key pillars. There have been a series of high-level visits in the last two years maintaining the momentum.

Further, the envoy said India had opened up its defence sector for investments which presents lot of investment opportunities for Saudi companies. He advocated the path of ‘invest, trade, localise’ and gave the example of a basmati rice brand that a Saudi firm has invested in, then was imported to Saudi and eventually set up shop there. This ‘invest, trade, localise’, also fits into the Saudi Vision 2030 “where you are trying to localise your defence industry like all of us should do but we can be partner in that,” Dr. Khan stated.

Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is aiming to transition from a defence consumer to a defence producer, with a target to localise 50% of its spending.

Areas of mutual interest

Major Indian public sector as well as private defence companies were present at the seminar and post the discussions, Indian companies have been invited to take forward conversations on specific projects including joint ventures in naval and aerospace technologies, officials in the know added.

Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt visited Riyadh in February for the World Defence Show (WDS) 2024 during which his discussions centred around “exploring avenues for collaboration in areas of mutual interest, including increasing the scope of joint training exercises, technology transfer and exchange of expertise”, the Defence Ministry had stated.

In January this year, the two countries held the inaugural edition of the Army exercise ‘Sada Tanseeq’ at Mahajan ranges in Rajasthan and Saudi Arabia was one of the 18 Observer countries at the second phase of Indian Air Force’s largest air exercise Tarang Shakti in August. The two Navies have a bilateral exercise ‘Al Mohed Al Hindi’ that commenced in 2022.

Saudi Arabia is reported to have procured the 155mm Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) from Bharat Forge. Saudi Arabia has in the past evaluated two types of artillery guns manufactured from Bharat Forge.