Oman, Britain joint military exercises; 38 percent increase in military expenditures

Originally published March 12, 2001

Oman is intending to make joint military exercises with the British forces in October this year.

The Omani monthly ( Jund Oman) " Oman's soldiers" issued by the Omani ministry of defense said in its issue released on Sunday quoted the Omani forces army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Khamis Bin Hameed that the maneuvers to be conducted with the British forces are the second of its kind following the first maneuvers which were held in 1986.

Diplomats said that Oman increased its military expenditures after improvement of its oil revenues following the increase in oil prices, noting that Oman which is not an OPEC member pumps almost 900,000 barrels of oil every day which represents 65% of the country GNP.

Worthy mentioning that Oman's military expenditures increased this year to 926 million riyals representing an increase of 38%, ( equal to USD 2.4 billion) in comparison to 670,000 million riyals of the military expenditures in the year 2000.