Nigeria and India discuss defence cooperation

06 Juin 2020

Abuja, Nigeria, June 6 (Infosplusgabon) – Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd) and the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Abhay Thankur, on Friday discussed ways of fostering Nigerian-Indian bilateral defence co-operation.

They discussed new ways of mutually beneficial arrangements and agreements at the ministerial level behind closed doors.

Spokesperson to the Minister of Defence, Mr Mohammed Abdulkadri, said in a statement on Saturday that “the highly classified and restricted matters that are strategic to common interest of the two countries were witnessed by senior Nigerian military officers and some principal personnel of the Ministry as well as the Indian Defence Adviser, Colonel Cachin Dubey”.

The Defence cooperation between Nigeria and India began in earnest after Nigeria’s independence in 1960, resulting in India helping to set up various military institutions in the country.

These include elite military training establishments especially the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) at Kaduna and the Naval College at Port Harcourt.

In addition, several Nigerian officers were trained over the years in Indian military institutions. These include former Nigerian Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammudu Buhari who attended the prestigious Defence Services Staff Course (DSSC) at Wellington in 1970s.

In October 2007, Nigeria and India signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation especially in counter terrorism and counter-intelligence, sea piracy and exchange of visits between training institutes.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/POL/GABON2020

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