India–Japan Defence Ties: Building a Strategic Partnership

India–Japan defence ties that began less than a decade ago have witnessed unprecedented progress. Until recently they were dominated by military exercises, training and regular dialogues, but now they are entering a new and crucial phase as they embark on ambitious joint research on advanced technologies and development of systems which will have considerable implications for their strategic partnership as well as to Indo-Pacific security. It is imprudent to surmise that this is entirely due to China; rather, a variety of factors are contributing to the burgeoning defence relations. The strategy for consolidating defence links is to create institutional mechanisms at various levels and constantly scale-up cooperation.