Tag: India

This report argues that India’s traditional air defence (AD) architecture—reliant on expensive, centralized missile systems—is becoming obsolete against the proliferating threat of low-cost, autonomous drone swarms. The May 2025 “Operation Sindoor” crisis exposed a critical “cost asymmetry”: expending million-dollar interceptors against disposable $2,000 FPV drones is economically unsustainable, allowing adversaries to easily exhaust India’s magazine depth.

The roundtable discussion will examine how shifting geopolitics—from the Trump–Xi accord to Middle Eastern realignments and a possible Russia–Ukraine ceasefire—are reshaping India’s strategic environment. It will assess implications for ASEAN, Gulf energy, IMEC, and how India balances BRICS+ ambitions with practical security and supply-chain partnerships like the Quad.

This report assesses the Indo-German space partnership, noting that despite historical ties since 1963, the bilateral space relationship has underperformed largely due to ISRO’s monopoly and Germany’s ESA-centric focus. However, a pivotal opportunity has emerged, driven by concurrent major policy shifts in both countries, including a series of Indian reforms (since 2020) to privatize its space sector and Germany’s recently announced $41 billion defense space investment.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the India-China boundary dispute, focusing specifically on the dynamic Eastern Sector (Arunachal Pradesh). It traces the historical and legal origins of the conflict, from the 1914 Simla Convention and the establishment of the McMahon Line to the complex diplomatic negotiations of the post-independence era. The study argues that China’s maximalist claims in the East are less about genuine historical sovereignty and more about strategic leverage—aimed primarily at compelling India to recognize the status quo in Aksai Chin.

This Track 1.5 dialogue brought together Indian and Canadian officials, industry leaders, and experts to explore practical avenues for security and defense cooperation. Discussions focused on Indo-Pacific maritime security, defense-industrial collaboration, dual-use technology development, training exchanges, and opportunities for supply-chain integration aligned with the momentum of the October 2025 joint statement.

The roundtable highlighted how India–US ties are being reshaped by Trump 2.0’s transactional approach, tighter great-power competition, and shifting Indo-Pacific dynamics. While defense and technology cooperation are expanding, renewed pressures on trade, digital policy, and burden-sharing present challenges. India’s task will be balancing alignment with autonomy amid evolving US–China rivalry