A Bilateral Defense Breakthrough
On October 31, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met in Kuala Lumpur to sign the “2025 Framework for the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership,” a landmark agreement outlining defense cooperation for the next decade. This agreement builds on significant progress on defense operational and industrial cooperation over the past year, despite being overshadowed at times by some political friction. In spite of the tensions over tariffs, Russian oil, and the aftermath of the India-Pakistan war in 2025, the deal proves that over the past years, U.S.-India defense cooperation has matured into the steadiest part of the strategic partnership, partly due to China’s aggression on India’s borders, and in part owing to the mutual trust built over two decades of accelerating military-to-military capability transfer, interoperability, and trust.
A fact sheet laying out the ambitions of the agreement revealed several notable details and milestones.
Prioritization. First, the language of the agreement elevates defense as a top priority. In contrast to past 10-year agreements, defense has moved to center stage from “an important part” (1995) to “an element” (2005) to “a key component” (2015) to now “the major pillar” (2025) in the U.S.-India relationship.
Mission. Second, for the first time in three decades, a U.S.-India defense framework uses the word “deterrence” as a primary goal of the relationship. Deterrence requires a target (or adversary) whose behavior we intend to shape, implying a shared mission. Combined with the first mention of the geography of this partnership – “a pillar of peace and security and an anchor of stability in the Indo-Pacific region”– this makes it very clear who the shared adversary is without explicit naming. This language provides a level of specificity that warrants deeper operational, technological, supply-chain, and defense trade cooperation sought by both sides.
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