Joint Gulf exercises wind up with aim to strengthen security, stability

JEDDAH: The joint Gulf sea exercises (Gulf of Peace 6), which were carried out off the Eastern Province in the waters of the Arabian Gulf, concluded on Wednesday with the participation of the Saudi Border Guards, Bahraini and Kuwaiti Coast Guard, and with support from the Saudi Security Air Force.
The exercise was attended by Deputy Director General of Border Guards Maj. Gen. Badr bin Hamdi Al-Jabri; commander of the Coast Guard of Bahrain, Rear Admiral Alaa bin Abdullah Siyadi; and the commander of the participating Kuwaiti Forces, Lt. Col. Musaed Abdul Salam Al-Shatti.
The joint exercise aimed to strengthen the principles of cooperation and integration in joint security action, unify field efforts and coordinate concepts, and to work with the spirit of one team through a number of tactical plans and reality-based scenarios which could apply to multiple threat sources facing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
The exercise was also meant to test joint GCC preparedness, command and control, support missions, and exchange of information between the GCC countries at the operational and field levels of the GCC border and coast guards joining the exercise.
The participating forces proved capable in dealing with and carrying out search and rescue operations, weapons and human trafficking, armed robbery, sea security, fighting terrorism, piracy and organized crimes on the high seas.
At the end of the exercise, Al-Jabri expressed appreciation to the exercise command and the participants for their efforts and urged them to make the most of these exercises in gaining skills and exchanging experiences.
The exercise comes within the context of military cooperation between the Kingdom and GCC participating countries in implementation of the decisions of the 35th session of the GCC interior ministers.