Defence Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled the RAKSHA defence diplomacy document in New Delhi on Thursday, setting out India's strategic roadmap for global defence partnerships over the next ten years. The document was released at an event attended by senior military and civil officials, according to a Ministry of Defence statement.

RAKSHA is pitched as a comprehensive blueprint, one the Ministry says marks a shift in India's strategic engagement.

Four pillars behind the RAKSHA defence diplomacy document

The document rests on four stated pillars. The first is strategic partnerships, aimed at deepening bilateral and multilateral security cooperation with partner nations. The second is capacity building, which covers joint military exercises, training programmes and the sharing of best practices with friendly countries.

Indigenous exports form the third pillar. The stated goal is to promote Make in India defence platforms and position the country as a reliable global hub for defence manufacturing. Maritime security rounds out the framework, with an explicit aim of strengthening India's role as a Net Security Provider and First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region.

Exports as a diplomacy tool

The indigenous exports pillar sits alongside a broader push the Ministry has been building for several years. Domestic defence output and outbound sales have both climbed sharply, a trend IDW has tracked through record production and export figures reported earlier this year. RAKSHA folds that industrial growth directly into foreign policy, treating exported platforms as instruments of partnership rather than just trade.

Military leadership at the release

Chief of the Army Staff Gen Dhiraj Seth attended, months after he took over as the 31st Chief of the Army Staff. Vice Chief of the Air Staff Air Mshl Ashutosh Dixit, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff Vice Adm Ajay Kochhar and Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Air Mshl Tejinder Singh were also present.

Air Mshl Dixit and Vice Adm Kochhar had earlier stood alongside the Defence Minister at his felicitation of the Samudra Pradakshina crew, another occasion where he spoke of India's standing abroad.


Civilian officials and the wider room

Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar were present too. So was Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs Rudrendra Tandon, a presence that underlined the foreign policy weight attached to the release.

Defence diplomacy as a foreign policy pillar

The Ministry's framing places defence diplomacy squarely within India's foreign policy architecture, not as an adjunct to it. The RAKSHA defence diplomacy document is pitched as giving that pillar a clear, actionable vision for the coming decade rather than leaving it to ad hoc engagement, one meant to keep India positioned as an anchor of peace, stability and rule based order as the global landscape shifts.

The document carries no public timeline for individual initiatives under its four pillars. The Ministry has not indicated when a fuller version or an implementation schedule will follow.