Manama: Northern Thunder, the largest joint military manoeuvres to be held in the region, will be concluded on Thursday amid expectations that Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and other leaders will attend the final exercises.
The manoeuvres in northern Saudi Arabia were launched in the middle of last month with the participation of 20 Arab and Islamic countries, including the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and the Peninsula Shield, the military arm of the GCC.
Organisers said the international drills have been highly successful at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.
The participating forces have also succeeded in carrying out the second largest mobilisation of multinational military forces since Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991.
The participating countries are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Senegal, Sudan, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Chad, Tunisia, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Malaysia, Egypt, Mauritania, and Mauritius.
Their equipment included fighter jets of different models, a wide range of artillery, tanks, infantry, air defence systems, and naval forces.
The official Twitter account for Northern Thunder said the exercises were being held at King Khalid Military City in Hafr Al Batin.
“The main objective is to demonstrate the high combat readiness of the participating armed forces and their readiness and ability to function successfully in joint operations,” the account said.
Observers agreed that the drills reflected the unified political and military of the participating countries as well as their solidarity in confronting threats from terrorist groups and countries in the region to security and stability in the Arab and Islamic world.
In Tehran, a newspaper close to the Revolutionary Guard described the manoeuvres as an escalation against Iran and its interests in the region.
The Siasat-e Rooz (Politics of the Day), a hardliner-dominated publication run by a former Revolutionary Guard commander, said this week that Saudi Arabia was using Northern Thunder to send a military message to Iran and to demonstrate that it was capable of leading a huge Arab-Islamic military coalition.
Among world leaders joining King Salman on Thursday will be Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who will pay an official visit to Saudi Arabia on March 9 for talks on security cooperation, officials in Islamabad said on Monday.
Leaders from other countries have also been invited to witness the Northern Thunder closing ceremony, said a foreign ministry statement.
“The main goal of the exercise is to improve training in response to the threat posed by terrorist groups,” the statement added.
The foreign ministry said Pakistan will always stand shoulder to shoulder with Saudi Arabia against any threat to its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“Pakistan has consistently supported all regional and international efforts to combat militancy, extremism and terrorism and has extended its full support and cooperation to the international community,” the ministry said.
