The vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat(self-reliant India) was adopted by the Government of India headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately after the assumption of power in 2014 as its doctrine of governance. Policies of the government made ii as a fundamental aspect of all major decisions having short-term and long-term impact upon the onward march of the nation. Its reflection can be found in many fields like manufacturing, import and export, technology, defence production and preparedness, space and atomic research and other developmental activities influencing progress of the nation.
It is a vision and campaign launched by the government to make the country self-sufficient across all economic and strategic domains. It aims to boost manufacturing, create jobs, reduce reliance on imports and create awareness among all sections of society about the importance and functional strength of being self-reliant as a vibrant nation. The campaign is based on five major pillars i.e economy, infrastructure, system, vibrant economy and demand. Besides the above, the vision extends to the defence sector as well to achieve self-sufficiency in military production and technology.
The recently announced strategic defence pact between the US and India gives a clear reflection of the doctrine of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in its content and spirit. Here shall we discuss its salient features and possible implications as they appear out to be. On October 31, 2025, India and US jointly announced the signing of a ten-year defence pact at an official gathering in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. This development followed the ASEAN nations summit meeting in the same city and the US President Donald Trump also attended the Summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the summit through video conferencing. The Defence Minister of India, Rajnath Singh and the Defence Secretary of the US, Pete Hegseth in a joint conference made the deal public focussing on enhancing ‘coordination, information sharing and technical cooperation’ and advance ‘regional stability and deterrence’.
This news caused terrible worry and concern among many anti-India forces throughout the world and particularly the Pakistan establishment and military. The way the tribe of intellectuals and the thinkers-planners in Pakistan are reacting about this ten-year ‘defence framework agreement’ between US and India in the media speaks about their worries in this regard. They take it as a shocking development for them and have expressed their overwhelming surprise about the whole situation. It seems that they never expected this to happen keeping in view the current artificial bonhomie between the US and Pakistan.
Such defence deals and agreements between nations is a normal thing to happen in the ordinary course of events. But the way things were developing over the last some months between the US and India consequent upon the uncalled statements of President Trump and his company about India and the 50 per cent tariff on India by the US overshadowed the otherwise cordial relations between the oldest democracy and the largest democracy in the world. In such a scenario, this agreement surely assumes a great significance.
India entered into an agreement with General Electric (GE), a US company, for its fighter jet engines which was initially put to ‘halt’ by the Biden administration for the last two years followed by a similar action by the Trump government. This comprises a $1 billion deal for 113 GE-404 engines for India’s indigenously built Tejas LCA Mark 1A. Now the negotiations are also for 200 GE-414 engines for the Tejas LCA Mark 2 and it involves 80 per cent technology transfer to India. These jets are manufactured by HAL, a government of India undertaking and are an important component of India’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative. The agreement is valued at $1.5 billion. In this regard, India was also in negotiation with France as well. Besides this, India is aiming at the procurement of 114 Rafale jets from France.
While for India, this agreement with the US is surely an important component of the policy of ‘self-reliant India’ programme to boost domestic manufacturing and minimise dependence on imports, the additional transfer of technology is a key and essential integrant of the agreement. It is also agreed that the maintenance and repair will also be done in India under the joint collaboration of HAL and GE. This collaboration also takes to deeper levels the partnership between the US and India in the field of defence and technology. Such an agreement will eventually lead to dialogue on tariffs as well when the trade deal between the two countries will be finalised possibly by the end of this year.
This strategic pact will pave the way for faster integration of US weapon supplies in the Indian defence system and arsenals. Now India will be able to get Javelin anti-tank missiles from the US and also the armoured cars for its defence forces. In the background of the agreement, India and the US will be opening dialogue for the manufacture of unmanned submarines in the near future. Some joint defence exercises are also slated for early 2026 involving 35 countries of the world including Australia and Japan besides India and the US. The exercises will be held under the banner named ‘Milan’ and will be done in the Bay of Bengal. The Chief of the Indian Navy simultaneously confirmed this development.
This agreement also confirms the fact that there would be no change in the QUAD encirclement of the Asia-Pacific region for which India, US, Australia and Japan are the founding & active partners of the arrangement. It is well recognised that this arrangement is also aimed at checking the influence of China in the Asia-Pacific region and hasn’t been influenced by the developments in the recently held SCO summit in China in which India was a frontline player along with China and Russia. It also leads to a balance of power in the region.
The government of India is conscious of the fact that the nation needs to be self-reliant in all cases and particularly in the defence arena keeping in view its past experiences. Therefore its strategic and security related policies are deeply governed by the doctrine of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. There are two other important aspects of the agreement as well that need to be described here. One is in relation to the interchange of intelligence inputs between the US and India. The second is somewhat unprecedented and a game changer in essence. The US and India both will in the near future purchase defence equipment from each other on the basis of reciprocity. The agreement puts India in regard to geo-politics on a higher pedestal as compared to its earlier position in such matters. It has also come forth at a time when the current relations between the two nations were not considered quite cordial by the international observers.
The biggest gain in favour of India is that it successfully pursued its policy of not opening its domestic markets to the US products in the field of agriculture, dairy, fisheries and other restricted items and has done so to protect the interests of its farmers in particular. There are other cultural and social issues also involved in this decision and the government of India has stood its ground despite a number of difficulties in this regard.
India has also rejected US proposals to stop purchasing oil from Russia and has instead been instrumental in maintaining balance in global prices of oil in hard times. In the meanwhile, India has in this regard also explored new markets in the world and is moving ahead with precision. The deal entered at Kuala Lumpur in this backdrop adds new geopolitical dimensions; and it seems to have clearly caught the world’s attention and specially the attention of the Indian neighbourhood.
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