Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Nigerian – Indian Bilateral Defence Co-operation is entering a new phase of mutually beneficial arrangements and agreement at the Ministerial levels.
The Indications to this emerged at the Ministry’s Headquarters, Ship House, Abuja when the Minister of Defence Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi (Rtd) hosted the Indian High Commissioner to NIgeria, Abhay Thankur on a courtesy call in his Office.
A statement signed by the Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the Minister of Defence Mohammed Abdulkadri indicates that the issue of bilateral interest which necessitated the interface between the representatives of the two Countries were discussed behind closed doors and were not made available to the media.
Furthermore, the statement put on record that the highly classified and restricted matters that are strategic to common interest of the two Countries were witnessed by Senior Military Officers and some Principal Personnel of the Ministry as we as the Indian Defence Adviser Colonel Cachin Dubey.
Mohammed Abdulkadri, special adviser Media and Publicity to the Honourable Minister of Defence (HMOD), in a statement stated that the courtesy visit climaxed with the usual exchange of plagues between the host Minister and his visitor.
It is on record that the two countries Armed Forces enjoy Defence co-operation in the areas of training and exchange of Military programmes as captured in the Memorandum of understanding.