Days after signing a ‘Letter of Intent’ for a Strategic Defence Partnership with the United Arab Emirates, India on Wednesday (January 28, 2026) held a security dialogue with Saudi Arabia. Indian and Saudi senior officials met in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where the two sides carried out a ‘comprehensive review of ongoing security cooperation’ and discussed threats posed by terrorist groups globally and ‘in their respective regions’.
The 3rd India-Saudi Arabia Security Working Group was co-chaired by Vinod Bahade, Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Ahmed Al-Eissa, Director General of Legal Affairs and International Cooperation in the Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia. “Both sides shared views on enhancing cooperation in current and emerging challenges to counter-terrorism including countering extremism and radicalisation, combating financing of terrorism, preventing use of technology for terrorist purposes, nexus between transnational organised crimes and terrorism,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The officials also condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam of April 22, 2025, and the terror incident on November 10, 2025, near the Red Fort. Both sides discussed measures to enhance bilateral legal and judicial cooperation and law enforcement cooperation, the MEA said.
