India defence cooperation deals widened across four continents this year, according to the Ministry of Defence's Annual Report archive, with a missile manufacturing venture with France and a ten year framework with the United States the two India defence cooperation deals carrying the most weight.

The report's Defence Cooperation with Foreign Countries chapter runs to more than twenty pages and covers dozens of bilateral engagements. Two entries stand well above the rest.

India defence cooperation deals turn a French missile into a Make in India product

Bharat Electronics Limited and Safran Electronics and Defense signed a Joint Venture Agreement to set up a company producing the HAMMER precision guided air to ground weapon in India, the report said, without giving further detail on the arrangement's scale or timeline.

A partnership that began at Aero India

Public reporting at the time had traced the deal back further than the report does. A memorandum of understanding between the two firms was signed at Aero India in February 2025, followed by a Joint Venture Cooperation Agreement in New Delhi that November, with the formal Joint Venture Agreement and a Master Production Agreement following in February 2026 in Bengaluru, during the same 6th India France Annual Defence Dialogue the Annual Report itself records under its France entry. Contemporary reporting put planned indigenisation at up to 60 percent, with final assembly, testing and quality assurance to sit with Bharat Electronics.

HAMMER already has a service record with the Indian Air Force. The weapon was used from Rafale aircraft during Operation Sindoor, and a Specialist Weapon Firing Camp at Pokaran in September and November 2025 saw HAMMER and SPICE stand off weapons released from Su-30 MKI and Rafale aircraft successfully engaged by India's own SPyDer and Akash air defence systems, the same report notes elsewhere.

A ten year framework with the United States

The Defence Minister and the US Secretary of War signed a ten year Defence Framework on 31 October 2025, on the sidelines of the 12th ADMM Plus in Kuala Lumpur, the report said. It sits alongside a five year renewal of the Maritime Defence Information Sharing and Cooperation technical arrangement between the Indian Navy and US Indo Pacific Command, effective from 26 October 2025, and approval for four new International Liaison Officer posts at INDOPACOM in Hawaii, the Combined Maritime Force in Bahrain, and two Indian Ocean fusion centres.

An 18th Defence Policy Group meeting in March 2026 exchanged what the report calls a comprehensive underwater domain awareness roadmap between the two navies, building on ties that have separately produced a Javelin anti-tank missile sale to the Indian Army, a deal the US Embassy in New Delhi called a milestone in the countries' defence industrial relationship.

New agreements with the UAE and Israel

A Letter of Intent on a Strategic Defence Partnership was signed with the UAE on 19 January 2026, during the visit of its President to India, the report said. That builds on a maritime security MoU between the Indian Coast Guard and the UAE National Guard Command signed at the 13th Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting in July 2025, and follows earlier UAE talks under the same partnership framework that had already begun turning dialogue into signed agreements.

Israel's defence ties deepened on a separate track. A broad defence cooperation MoU covering military doctrine, procurement, industrial partnerships, AI and cybersecurity was signed alongside the 17th India Israel Joint Working Group in Tel Aviv in November 2025, and a Secrecy Agreement between the two countries followed in February 2026, the report said.

Submarine rescue pacts with Australia and Vietnam

India signed mutual submarine rescue agreements with two navies in the same reporting year. An MoU between the Royal Australian Navy and the Indian Navy for mutual submarine rescue support was signed during the Defence Minister's Australia visit in October 2025, alongside an arrangement on Defence Information Analytical Cooperation and terms of reference for Joint Staff Talks. A separate MoA for mutual submarine search and rescue support was signed with the Vietnam Ministry of National Defence during a Defence Policy Dialogue in Hanoi on 10 November 2025.

Neither agreement is described in the report as connected to the other, and no service has stated a broader submarine rescue strategy behind the two signings.

Neighbourhood diplomacy carried out in disaster relief

Two named operations anchor the report's neighbourhood entries. India launched Operation Brahma on 28 March 2025, sending a 109 member Armed Forces Medical Services team for earthquake relief in Myanmar, which the report frames as evidence of India's policy of acting as first responder in the neighbourhood. Operation Sagar Bandhu followed on 28 November 2025, providing search, rescue and humanitarian relief to Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah, an operation the Sri Lankan President later thanked India for directly during the Defence Minister's Colombo visit.

Both operations are recorded in the report as expressions of the Neighbourhood First Policy, with Sri Lanka's entry additionally citing the government's MAHASAGAR vision for the Indian Ocean Region.