India
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Across The Region
Indian Navy Commissions Biggest Aircraft Carrier in Domestic Defense Push
India commissioned its first domestically manufactured aircraft carrier in September 2022, underlining New Delhi’s efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders. After 17 years of construction and tests, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the INS Vikrant, pictured — the Navy’s second operational aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built in India…
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Partnerships
ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise stresses cooperation, interoperability
FORUM Staff The leaders of the Indian and Singaporean navies, Adm. R. Hari Kumar, pictured, and Rear Adm. Sean Wat, launched the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Maritime Exercise (AIME-23) at Changi Naval Base, Singapore, in early May 2023. The weeklong exercise provided an opportunity for the Indian Navy and ASEAN navies to work together and improve interoperability,…
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Conflicts - Tensions
Tensions mount along India-PRC border
Mandeep Singh Recent events have solidified Arunachal Pradesh’s position as a territorial flashpoint between India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The high-altitude province in northeast India is south of the nations’ disputed border. The PRC claims 90,000 square kilometers of the region, which it calls Southern Tibet. The PRC’s renaming of 11 locations in Arunachal Pradesh — two…
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Partnerships
Multinational AFINDEX-23 highlights Africa-India partnership
FORUM Staff The second iteration of the Africa-India Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX-23) brought together 25 African nations to train with troops in India over two weeks in late March 2023. Aimed at building positive military relations and sharing best practices, the exercise promoted humanitarian work to remove landmines and strengthen peacekeeping operations under the United Nations mandate, according to the…
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South Asia
PRC’s massive dam in Himalayas raises tensions downstream
FORUM Staff The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) withholding of details about its planned super hydropower dam — potentially the world’s largest — on the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) River in the Tibet Autonomous Region has spurred anxiety and mistrust among neighbors. The Brahmaputra provides water for farming, fishing and transport in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).…
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Partnerships
Women build on legacy of defense, security, peacekeeping contributions
FORUM Staff Indian engineer Rajeshwari Chatterjee helped found her nation’s first microwave research lab in 1953. Her contributions to radar and antenna technology have defense applications more than 50 years later. Chemist Stephanie Kwolek, working for industrial chemistry giant DuPont in 1965, made a discovery that led to Kevlar, a fiber still used in body armor as well as to…
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Features
Homegrown Defense
FORUM Staff With its MK44 Bushmaster 30 mm chain gun giving it a firing range of 3 kilometers, the Taiwan Army’s CM-34 Clouded Leopard can stalk an enemy across all terrains and in all conditions at speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour. By 2023, more than 300 of the eight-wheeled armored vehicles manufactured in central Taiwan should be operational.…
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Northeast Asia
NATO to enhance Indo-Pacific engagements, highlight cross-regional security implications
FORUM Staff NATO in late January 2023 launched an initiative to delve deeper into security developments in the Indo-Pacific and how they impact the Euro-Atlantic region. A series of discussions, named “Futures in the Indo-Pacific,” will bring together experts from Australia, Belgium, France and Japan over the next two years for exchanges on implications of security matters affecting both regions.…
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South Asia
India’s aircraft carriers key to Indo-Pacific strategy
The Associated Press India is preparing to relaunch its INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier after a major refit, a critical step toward fulfilling its plan to deploy two carrier battle groups as it seeks to strengthen its regional maritime power to counter the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) increasing assertiveness. The Vikramaditya, pictured, is expected to be launched imminently and will…
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Global Commons
India OKs ‘unprecedented’ procurement of military assets
Mandeep Singh India has approved spending U.S. $10.18 billion to modernize its military on land, at sea and in the air while boosting the nation’s defense economy with largely domestic investments. Maritime and border security threats have led the nation’s Defence Ministry to procure assets for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. The “unprecedented initiative” will bring new…
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