The visit of India’s defence minister Rajnath Singh to the United Kingdom from January 8-10, the first Indian Defence Ministerial visit to the UK in 22 years, marks a significant improvement in bilateral ties and the building of trust despite differences over the Russia-Ukraine war. Yet, defence technological and industrial partnerships, a key objective of India’s efforts to boost self-reliance in arms production, remains challenging with the reluctance of UK defence industry to engage boldly with India, unlike their counterparts in the US and France. In January 2002, George Fernandes, the defence minister of an earlier BJP-led government, visited London amidst an India-Pakistan military crisis. Several junior defence ministers have visited since then, largely for defence and air shows. A planned visit to the UK in the summer of 2022 by current defence minister Rajnath Singh was abruptly called off by India for ‘protocol’ reasons. But, in effect, the Indian side felt they could not usefully engage with then UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who perceived India as ‘not on side’ on the Ukraine war. Since the appointment of his successor Grant Shapps, an inaugural meeting of the ‘2+2’ foreign and defence dialogue at Director General-level, took place in October 2023 and the Defence Consultative Group meeting at Permanent Secretary-level was held in November 2023. ‘Defence and Security’ are one of five ‘pillars’ of the India-UK 2030 Roadmap, launched by prime ministers Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson in May 2021, setting out a unique ten-year bilateral plan for prioritization and raising ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. During the meeting at the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023, prime ministers Modi and Sunak agreed to build ‘a modern partnership in cutting-edge defence technology, trade and innovation’. The UK government supports India’s plans to develop its defence industry, which would reduce its dependence on Russian military equipment. In April 2022, it issued an India-specific open general-export license – the first given to an Indo-Pacific country – to permit exports of certain military and dual-use goods and technology. In September 2023, the UK launched a new organisation headed by the Ministry of Defence called Defence Partnership India to build bilateral defence ties.But, in practice, no significant India-UK collaboration regarding defence capabilities has occurred as yet. The reason for this is that its implementation depends on industry not government, marked by a notable lack of coordination and cooperation between the two. It is also affected by what an IISS Strategic Comment in November 2023 described as the ‘three-I’ challenge for UK companies in relation to India. These pertain to: i) foreign investment – the absence of an Indian procurement category of majority foreign ownership for the most lucrative projects;ii) intellectual property rights – the requirement for intellectual property for such projects to be Indian owned and controlled; and iii) indigenous-content requirements – a minimum level of 50% or more to be domestically-sourced for the parts and materials used in weapons or equipment. There is also concern that sensitive technologies could be diverted from India to Russia; which the Indian government stoutly challenges. Also read: ‘India-UK Trade Talks Not Stalled’: Indian Government Sources Deny UK Newspaper ReportYet, India’s defence minister’s visit could prove pivotal by progressing significant collaborative projects at a political level. The most important are the co-development and co-creation of gas-turbine propulsion technology by Rolls-Royce and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the next-generation of Indian fighter-aircraft engines, where India will own the project’s most sensitive intellectual property as well as export-approval authority; the recent partnership for naval electric propulsion between the Indian government and GE (Naval), UK as well as Rolls-Royce; and the procurement of ground-based air defence systems from MBDA (UK). However, the Ministerial visit takes place at a time when the DRDO has shut down its office in the Indian High Commission in London and re-located its single official representative to France; and the Indian defence ministry, as part of a rationalisation process, has reduced its military representation in London from three one-star officers to a single officer. Additional challenges could include the emergence of firm evidence on allegations of official Indian involvement in targeted assassinations/assassination attempts in the US and Canada; as well as a rise in Sikh separatist (Khalistani) extremism in the UK amidst upcoming general elections in India (in May-June 2023) and the UK (in the second half of the year) in the absence of a finalised bilateral Free Trade Agreement. Rahul Roy-Chaudhury is Senior Fellow for South Asia, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London.
