The arrival of the Saudi forces participating in the EFES 2018 exercise in the Turkish city of Izmir was completed on Sunday, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Special Units from the Saudi Land Royal Forces arrived in the Turkish Izmir base where they were received by Marine Brigadier General Khaled bin Hussein Al-Assaf, the Saudi Military Attaché in Ankara and Bucharest and the training Marine Commander Colonel Abdullah Al-Duraibi, and Commanders of the exercise.

These units will be joining the rest of the forces of the participating friendly countries in a number of military scenarios that will increase the combat readiness of the forces participating in a real combat environment.

The joint multipartite and multi-national exercise will be conducted from 7-8 May.

According to Brigadier General Al-Assaf, ESEF is considered to be among one of the biggest military drills in the world in terms of participating forces’ number and diversity of the nature and fields of the exercise.

For his part, Colonel Al-Diraibi said that the exercise aims to exchange military experience among participating countries, training on planning and coordinating joint operations in different environments, upgrading fighting efficiency and enhancing military cooperation, in addition to exercise on carrying out strategic transport schemes for forces deployed at their concentration positions to operations locations.