The joint Saudi-US exercise (Prevention Shield-3) concluded Wednesday in the Fifth Air Defense Group in the Eastern Province, which started several days ago as part of the joint exercise plan between the two friendly countries with the aim of training and planning for crisis management resulting from weapons of mass destruction, in the presence of the Eastern Region Commander, Major General Saeed bin Abdulrahman Abu Assaf.
The closing ceremony witnessed the participation of the US forces, the Saudi armed forces, and the General Administration of Health Services at the Ministry of Defense, with the support of several government agencies including the Ministry of Health, Civil Defense, and the Saudi Red Crescent, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Major General Abu Assaf valued the participation of friendly US forces, expressing his appreciation to all participants for their distinguished efforts in implementing the exercise and achieving its planned objectives.
For his part, the General Supervisor of the exercise, Commander of the Fifth Air Defense Group, Major General Khaled bin Saeed Abu Qais, said: “The Prevention Shield-3 exercise included several seminars and theoretical lectures on protection from weapons of mass destruction, training commanders and personnel on planning to manage this type of crisis, managing operations centers, joint workshops, in addition to implementing several hypotheses for training on how to have an immediate and effective response against weapons of mass destruction, stressing that the exercise was successfully executed and achieved its goals.”
The Prevention Shield-3 exercise comes within the great efforts made by the Saudi Ministry of Defense to train all military units within the annual plan, which aims to support cooperation and relations with friendly forces and achieve cooperation and integration at the national level with participating agencies from other government sectors to achieve response The immediate and effective response to this type of crisis, in addition to exchanging experiences, developing skills, and highlighting the capabilities, professionalism and readiness of our armed forces.
In another development, HRM Prince Khalid bin Salman, Deputy Minister of Defense, met via videoconference Thursday, with Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe.
The meeting reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries, especially in the defense and military fields, means to develop them and issues of mutual interest.
The meeting was attended by Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Lt. General Fayyad bin Hamid Al-Ruwaili, Assistant Minister of Defense for Executive Affairs Dr. Khaled Biyari, and other officials from both countries.
