India holds security dialogue with Saudi Arabia after defence pact with UAE

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.

Indian officials described the meeting of the Security Working Group as ‘a good framework of ongoing cooperation’, emphasising that it is a continuing mechanism under the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council (SPC). However, the dialogue has drawn attention as it came days after India and the UAE inked a ‘Letter of Intent’ for a Strategic Defence Partnership.

The UAE’s relations with Saudi Arabia have nosedived over the past several months because of diverging policies in Yemen. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE has taken any formal measures against each other, but the two neighbours have been exchanging strong remarks lately over the situation in Yemen as well as in other parts of West Asia and North Africa such as Libya and Sudan. Saudi criticism has generally highlighted that the UAE has been trying to promote inimical forces in areas linked to Saudi strategic interests.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are vital for India’s energy security and investments, and are also major foreign remittance generators as they host a large number of Indian citizens working there as expatriates.

Officials here, however, have said that the ‘Letter of Intent’ with the UAE will not drag India into a future conflict situation in the Gulf. “So I would really characterise it as a natural evolution from the already considerable defence cooperation between the two countries and not necessarily a response to any specific event that may have taken place in the region or of any intent to get involved in hypothetical future scenario in the region,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, explaining the India-UAE Letter of Intent on Strategic Defence Partnership on January 19, when UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan paid a three-hour visit to Delhi during which the LoI was signed.