The US state department has approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missile systems and Excalibur-guided artillery munitions worth $93-million to India. Earlier this month, India signed a deal to purchase 113 fighter‐jet engines from US firm General Electric for its indigenous Tejas Mk-1A aircraft. Both the deals reaffirm a mature bilateral defence relationship between the world’s largest democracy and the world’s most powerful democracy.
Though the US and India relations have been rocky especially in matters of trade and commerce after Donald Trump took over reins in Washington in 2025, the defence representatives from both the countries continued to engage each other. Soon after Mr Trump took charge of the Oval Office for the second time, India and the US issued a joint statement in February 2025, agreeing to expand defence sales, co-production and interoperability efforts.
In October 2025, defence minister Rajnath Singh and US secretary of war Pete Hegseth signed a “Framework for the US-India Major Defence Partnership” for the next 10 years, giving a policy-direction to the whole spectrum of defence relations. It emphasised co-development and co-production of advanced defence systems, technology transfer and increasing India’s defence industrial base under initiatives such as “Make in India”.
Similarly, both India and the United States have been participating in bilateral and multilateral military exercises in the Quad format, indicating the American establishment’s preference for Indian defence partnership in Asia, where China has become too dominant.
Irrespective of Mr Trump’s attempts to promote the G-2 format, America cannot overlook China’s rise. If the US agrees to leave Asia under the sphere of China’s influence, it would be the beginning of America's rapid decline. If there is one country that could stand up to — if not match — China in terms of population, military strength, culture and economy, it is India. The India-US defence deals just attests to this fact.
