Army chief General MM Naravane leaves for three-day visit to South Korea

Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has proceeded on a three-day visit to the Republic of Korea on Monday aimed to strengthen military ties between both the countries.

General Naravane will be meeting senior military and civilian leadership of the Republic of Korea.

He will lay a wreath at the National Cemetery and War Memorial in Seoul. He is scheduled to call on the Minister of National Defence, South Korea Army Chief, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Minister of Defence Acquisition Planning Administration (DAPA) where he will discuss avenues for enhancing India-ROK defence relations.

The Army Chief will also visit the Korea Combat Training Centre in Inje Country, Gangwon Province and Advance Defence Development (ADD) at Daejeon.

Earlier in the month, General Naravane made a historic visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation. It was the first-ever visit by a head of the Indian Army to the two strategically important Gulf countries. He discussed issues of mutual interest and defence cooperation during the visit.

The visit by the Army chief was seen as a reflection of India's growing strategic ties with the two countries and to further open up new avenues for cooperation in the defence and security sphere.