§ Mr. Neil Thorneasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the outcome of Exercise Swift Sword carried out in November jointly with the Sultan of Oman's armed forces; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StanleyExercise Saif Sareea (Swift Sword), a combined United Kingdom-Omani exercise took place in Oman between 15 November and 8 December and was most successful. The exercise, involving nearly 5,000 British service men, achieved its aim of demonstrating our capability for rapid strategic deployment outside the NATO area. It also enabled the three services to practice combined operations with a host nation in accordance with operational concepts evolved from the lessons of the Falklands campaign. Further work will continue on drawing together the many detailed lessons of the exercise.372W The success of the exercise owed much to the excellent cooperation from, and generous facilities provided by, our Omani partners, for which Her Majesty's Government and our armed forces are most grateful.
§ Mr. Neil Thorneasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will consider inviting the Sultan of Oman's armed forces to participate in a joint exercise in the United Kingdom during 1988 or 1989.
§ Mr. StanleyWe always give careful consideration to the possibility of combined exercises with our friends where there are mutual benefits to be gained and we would be happy to consider detailed proposals from Oman.