Rajnath Singh in Britain: Are India-UK Defence Ties Heading for a Change?

There has been a feeling in India that the UK is not as keen as the US or France to develop a defence partnership.

Indian Defence Minister meeting UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps.

(Photo: X/@rajnathsingh)

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to the United Kingdom (UK) earlier this week is part of a process aimed at revitalising the strategic and security ties between the two countries. He was accompanied by a delegation of senior officers of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Service Headquarters, the Department of Defence, and the Department of Defence Production. This was the first visit by an Indian defence minister to the UK in 22 years.

In the bilateral meeting with his counterpart Grant Shapps that took place on Tuesday, Singh took up a range of issues relating to defence, security, and cooperation with respect to enhancing their defence-industrial partnership. Following this, the two sides signed two agreements, one on a cadet exchange programme and the other a Letter of Arrangement between the DRDO and the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to promote collaboration in R&D (Research and Development).

FTA, FPDA, and AUKUS

The visit is in line with India’s efforts to develop ties with all key global players. This was originally planned for June 2022 and was the outcome of an April 2022 discussion between Prime Minister Modi and the then British PM Boris Johnson during the latter’s visit to India. The Joint Statement of the visit was headlined, “Towards shared security and prosperity through national resilience.”

The April 2022 Joint Statement also noted the commitment of the two sides to transform defence and security cooperation “as a key pillar” in their partnership. In an earlier virtual summit, in May 2021, the two prime ministers had agreed to elevate the Indo-British relationship to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.” They had also adopted a “2030 roadmap” to expand ties in key areas of trade, economy, defence, and security, along with climate change and people-to-people ties.

During a meeting at the G20 summit in September last year, Prime Minister Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak took up the important issue of an Indo-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and a readout from 10 Downing Street also noted that both leaders agreed to cement “a modern partnership in cutting edge defence technology, trade and innovation.” At the policy level, India is keen to establish a good working relationship with the UK in the Indo-Pacific region, where there is a congruence of interests between the two countries.

Britain is a long-standing member of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), a series of bilateral agreements linking the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore. India’s participation in these arrangements seek to stabilise ties in the Southeast Asian region.

In 2021, the UK self-consciously tilted its international posture towards the Indo-Pacific region and besides revitalising ties with existing allies, it decided to deploy a new aircraft carrier strike group in the region. The goal was closer coordination with allies like Australia and the US, with whom the UK was formally associated in a new defence grouping called AUKUS in 2022.

The UK Has a Sophisticated Defence Industrial Base

The UK also maintains strong ties with several West Asian countries like Jordan and Saudi Arabia and has military bases in Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. This is a region of India’s interest as well, following its participation in the I2U2 arrangement with the UAE, the US, and Israel and the India-Middle East Economic Cooperation Corridor. Strong ties with the US would knit these relationships closer.

Following the Modi-Johnson virtual meeting of May 2021, the UK posted a liaison officer at the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre (IFC) at Gurgaon which tracks shipping in the Indian Ocean region. The US, Australia, Japan and France already had deputed officials to the IFC earlier.

But the focus of Rajnath Singh’s visit was more in the area of defence industrial cooperation. The UK has a sophisticated defence industrial base and has made its own fighter aircrafts, submarines, warships, and tanks. Yet, there has been a feeling in India that the UK is not as keen as the US or France to develop a partnership.

Both countries, however, now see the value of coming closer and acting on the decisions taken in the prime ministerial-level summits earlier. In April 2022, the British had issued an open general export licence which permitted the export or transfer of certain military goods from the UK to India. This is the first such licence for an Indo-Pacific country.

Things Could Be Heading for a Change

In October 2023, the two sides had their first 2+2 foreign and defence dialogue at the joint secretary level. This was followed by a meeting of the Defence Consultative Group in November at the level of the defence secretary. In late November, the British also launched a new organisation in their Ministry of Defence called “Defence Partnership India” to build bilateral defence ties.

According to the authoritative London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), maritime issues could be the most promising area of cooperation and British firms “will likely attempt to invest in maritime electric propulsion in India.” This was signalled by the establishment of an Indo-UK working group on marine electric propulsion capability partnership and its first meeting in New Delhi was in July 2023. Electrical propulsion could be used to power India’s next aircraft carrier.

India would also be keen on collaborating with the UK on aviation issues. One possible area could be in aero-engine technology with Rolls Royce which has offered to work with the DRDO in designing and developing jet engines for the IAF’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), which will be the core of India’s fifth generation aircraft fleet in the 2030s.

There is also the possibility of a collaboration between a Rolls Royce subsidiary, MTU, a specialist tank engine maker, for a power plant for India’s proposed light tanks to be used in the mountainous areas of the country.

There is also some speculation that India could be offered a place in the sixth-generation fighter programme being fielded by the UK in collaboration with Sweden, Italy, and Japan. As of now, India is focusing on AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft), even though other countries have begun working on their sixth-generation fighter designs. While there has been no significant India-UK collaboration in the area of defence for quite some time now, the flurry of recent decisions and discussions suggest that things could be heading for a change.

(The writer is a Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)