Sunday, March 12 2006 15:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Muscat: After having established a joint military cooperation mechanism with India, Oman today(Mar 12,2006) showcased its naval capabilities to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee when he visited the Wudham Naval Base and went on board a missile frigate.

He was received at the Base by chief of the Royal Oman Navy Rear Admiral Salim bin Abdullah bin Rashid al Alawi, who and other top officials briefed him on the naval capabilities of this Gulf nation.

Mukherjee also visited the full-fledged naval maintenance facilities and witnessed the ongoing refitting of some waships.

The facilities, the local navy officials said, are fully equipped to refit ships, including changing their hulls, conducting engineering repairs as also repairs of their electronic and computer systems.

The Omanese and Indian navies, the Oman Naval chief said, which held joint exercises on the Indian waters last November, have decided to conduct the next exercise in April, 2007.

Unlike the Indian Navy, the Royal Navy of Oman does not have underwater or air capabilities. Mukherjee would call on Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said before returning to Delhi.

The Defence Minister had yesterday held crucial talks with his Omanese counterpart Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Harem al Busaidi and Foreign Affairs Minister Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah bin Ibrahim, during which the decision to establish the Joint Military Cooperation Committee was taken.

The Committee, to be headed by Indian Defence Secretary and Omanese Under-Secretary for Defence, would identify areas of cooperation, including expansion of India's Ordnance Factory Boards and defence PSUs in participating in the process to meet the requirements of spares and inventories of Oman's armed forces.

The Committee, Mukherjee had said, was established to give shape to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation signed in New Delhi by the two sides last December.

The MoU provides not only for supply of Indian weaponry to the Omanese forces, but also envisages military exchanges, training, joint exercises and facilitates direct agreements between manufacturing companies of both countries, besides maintaining quality assurance of defence supplies.