India, Indonesia deepen defense ties with BrahMos, air-to-air missile deals

India and Indonesia discussed expanding defense industry collaboration, including the supply of BrahMos missiles and air-to-air missiles, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Jakarta, Secretary (East) Rudrendra Tandon said at a Ministry of External Affairs briefing on 7 July 2026. He said the commercial details of the agreements were left for companies to finalize and were not discussed at the leaders’ level.

Tandon said the two countries’ defense cooperation has so far mainly involved military-to-military activities, and that the visit’s discussions focused on upgrading this to include collaboration between defense industries. He said Indian defense industries have “acquired a fair amount of maturity and technological sophistication” in areas of interest to Indonesia, and that discussions covered shipping and weapon systems in addition to missiles.

Responding to questions from journalists including Jayanti of the Jakarta Globe and Nasumi Kawasaki of Nikkei Asia on the value and timeline of the BrahMos contract, Tandon said such commercial specifics were not part of leader-level discussions. He said the benefit of the defense collaboration was that both countries could build self-sufficiency using systems they own and develop themselves.

Danny of The Yomiuri Shimbun asked about the broader benefits of the missile agreements for both countries. Tandon said India and Indonesia, as developing countries, had “decided that we will collaborate with each other to help each other” as part of their comprehensive strategic partnership, describing BrahMos and air-to-air missile cooperation as new areas within that collaboration.

The defense discussions were part of a broader set of talks during Modi’s visit, which also covered maritime cooperation, an MoU renewing collaboration between the two countries’ Coast Guards, and support for India’s Great Nicobar Island project alongside Indonesian interest in the development of Sabang Port.