Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi will attend Thursday the final day of Raad Al-Shamal (North Thunder) military training exercise in Hafr Al-Baten in the northern military district of Saudi Arabia.
The manoeuvres included joint trainings on facing prospective threats in the context of regular and irregular warfare. Several Arab armies cooperated in these trainings to achieve their goals.
Egypt was keen to participate in such manoeuvres owing to its role in enforcing the security of the Arab region, read a statement from the Egyptian presidency.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia began this joint military training last month under the coalition of “Raad Al-Shamal”, aiming to increase military cooperation among Arab countries.
Military personnel from Egypt and forces from at least 20 Arab and Islamic countries participated in the exercise, according to Egypt’s military spokesman Mohamed Samir.
Among these countries, Egypt is ranked second in terms of the size of its forces and specialties, following Saudi Arabia.
“The joint training aims to support the capabilities of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the coalition countries to form a common Arab defence force and to unify our plans and combat current regional challenges,” Samir said.
Over the past few days, further training sessions were conducted along with lectures, as an introduction to the training exercises that will be executed during the manoeuvres phase.
In December 2015, Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, which raised questions over its motives and implications regarding the balance of power in the region.
The coalition would confront not only “Islamic State” (IS) but “any terrorist organisation that appears in front of us”, Saudi defence minister and deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said at a press conference in Riyadh.
