NEW DELHI: Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, India’s Chief of Naval Staff, departed for Japan on July 29, 2025, and proceeded to Tokyo as part of a strategically pivotal four-day official visit from 30 July to 2 August. During his visit, he held discussions with Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani, focusing on bolstering maritime defence cooperation and securing stability in the IndoPacific amid intensifying regional tensions. The visit highlights a trend observed since 2023: India and Japan intensifying their bilateral engagement and expanding military interoperability. This strategic alignment is rooted deeply in the “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” established in 2014.
However, the pace and scale of cooperation have notably accelerated in response to the shifting maritime landscape of the Indo-Pacific. The high-level strategic talks explicitly highlighted key areas: advancing defence technology exchanges, increasing defence industry partnerships, and reinforcing naval training and personnel exchanges. Beyond diplomatic courtesies, these exchanges represent tangible strategic commitments to tackling shared regional security concerns. Maritime security, especially given China’s assertive naval presence in the region, remains a top priority for both New Delhi and Tokyo.
Earlier this year, in May 2025, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Japanese counterpart, Nakatani, had similarly emphasised enhancing bilateral maritime coordination to safeguard regional sea lanes. Their dialogue marked a crucial juncture, setting the strategic direction that Admiral Tripathi’s visit now operationalises. Clearly, for both nations, collaboration is no longer merely symbolic but a strategic necessity. Indeed, India and Japan share an increasingly convergent strategic worldview driven significantly by China’s expanding maritime ambitions. Chinese assertiveness— seen vividly in territorial claims in the East and South China Seas, as well as increased naval activity in the Indian Ocean region—has strengthened Indo-Japanese ties out of mutual necessity.
This alignment is evident not only bilaterally but also within broader multilateral frameworks such as the Quad, comprising India, Japan, the United States, and Australia. China, unsurprisingly, perceives these collaborations as strategic encirclement. Beijing’s vocal criticism of Indo-Japan naval cooperation underscores its growing apprehension about containment strategies. Yet for India and Japan, the equation is straightforward: Maritime security cooperation is essential to preserving a free, open, and rules based Indo-Pacific order.
The hallmark of the growing India-Japan partnership has been significant strides in defence technology collaboration. A striking example is Japan’s transfer of advanced stealth antenna technology (the UNICORN mast) to the Indian Navy, marking a shift toward highend military-industrial cooperation, which has traditionally been restrained by Japan’s postwar constitutional limits on arms exports. Further cementing this trajectory, Bharat Electronics Limited, India’s leading defence electronics enterprise, has entered a strategic partnership with Mitsubishi Electric, signalling a deepening of bilateral industry integration.
These cooperative ventures contribute to India’s strategic initiative of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliance), aiming to reduce its dependency on foreign military technology imports while also creating new dynamics in regional defence economics. Enhanced operational synergy between the two naval forces has been notably visible in recent joint exercises. JIMEX 2023, the seventh iteration of the Japan-India Maritime Exercise, conducted in Visakhapatnam, underscored significantly advanced multi-domain naval interoperability involving frontline vessels and aircraft. Coupled with participation in exercises like Malabar, Dharma Guardian, and Veer Guardian—also involving Quad partners—the deepening interoperability sends a clear strategic message regionally, signalling preparedness for joint operational contingencies.
India and Japan’s bilateral cooperation within the Quad framework has translated into substantive maritime security coordination. In July 2025, the Quad’s inaugural ‘At Sea Observer’ mission symbolised enhanced regional maritime law enforcement, surveillance, and intelligence-sharing efforts, reflecting a practical strategic response to growing regional threats. Moreover, the April 2025 India-Japan Maritime Affairs Dialogue reinforced joint efforts to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), curb illicit maritime activities, and strengthen regional capabilities to address security challenges. This sustained dialogue further emphasises their collective commitment to maritime security governance in the Indo-Pacific. Strategic analysts note that this growing partnership is pivotal for regional security.
Japan’s evolving defence posture and regulatory adjustments now enable deeper and unprecedented defence-industry collaboration with India. This shift not only reflects changing Japanese security perceptions but also heralds broader regional strategic realignments. Admiral Tripathi’s visit is thus not merely symbolic. His engagements, notably with Defence Minister Nakatani, clearly reinforce a strategic trajectory that India and Japan have consistently nurtured. This partnership is quickly evolving from diplomatic symbolism into practical strategic synergy—cooperation that actively shapes the IndoPacific maritime environment.
As regional tensions escalate and maritime security challenges intensify, the India-Japan strategic partnership remains a vital pillar of stability. Maintaining this trajectory will require careful strategic stewardship, continued political support, and steady operational follow-through. If successfully sustained, this partnership promises to significantly shape the Indo-Pacific’s security architecture, underpinning a stable, secure, and balanced regional order for decades to come.
Ashish Singh is an awardwinning senior journalist with over 18 years of experience in defence and strategic affairs.
