Explained | Why Strategic Partnership Gives New Depth To India-Sweden Defence Cooperation
India and Sweden shift from defence trade to co-development, innovation and manufacturing, aligning Swedish technology strengths with India’s defence indigenisation and corridor-based production ambitions.
Published : May 19, 2026 at 3:20 PM IST
New Delhi: The decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to place defence cooperation at the heart of the India–Sweden Strategic Partnership marks a consequential shift in bilateral ties. What was once a limited supplier–buyer relationship is now being recast as a long-term technology and industrial collaboration aimed at co-development, innovation and trusted production within India’s defence ecosystem.
The Joint Action Plan 2026-2030 for the implementation of the India-Sweden Strategic Partnership announced following the bilateral summit meeting between Modi and Kristersson at Gothenburg on Sunday rests on four important pillars. One of the pillars is ‘Strategic Dialogue for Stability and Security’.
What does the ‘Strategic Dialogue for Stability and Security’ entail in terms of bilateral defence cooperation?
Under this pillar, both sides agreed to enhance dialogue on defence-related matters, including at the Ministerial level; explore possibilities for cooperation on defence innovation connected to the work in the Joint Working Group on Defence; encourage further Swedish investment in defence production in India’s defence corridors, taking note of the already ongoing Swedish investments to this end; and facilitate enhanced engagement between national defence colleges and other relevant strategic institutions.
Why this development assumes significance is that not much updated information on India-Sweden defence cooperation has been made available in the public domain by the authorities concerned.
But the fact of the matter is India and Sweden engage in defence cooperation, including industrial collaborations. A 2009 memorandum of understanding (MoU) established defence cooperation, with a 2019 General Security Agreement enhancing classified information sharing.
What are the recent developments in India-Sweden defence cooperation?
In 2021, Sweden’s Defence Minister participated in an India-Sweden Defence Industry Cooperation Webinar, leading to an MoU between the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers and the Swedish Security and Defence Industry. The Swedish Chief of Air Staff attended India’s Aero India Show 2021.
Sweden and India have collaborated in defence and space technology, with Swedish defence firms like SAAB investing in India’s defence sector. The 9th Joint Working Group on Defence Cooperation was held in 2023, and SAAB has set up a manufacturing unit for Carl-Gustaf shoulder-fired weapons in Haryana.
“Our cooperation in the defence sector is steadily growing,” Modi said while addressing at the media at the European Round Table for Industry following his meeting with Kristersson on Sunday. “The setting up of manufacturing facilities in India by Swedish companies shows that our partnership is moving beyond a buyer-seller relationship and becoming a long-term industrial collaboration.”
In a separate special media briefing following the Modi-Kristoferssson bilateral summit, Sibi George, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said that India and Sweden have agreed to further strengthen their defence cooperation.
“We are formalising a Cyber-Policy Dialogue between India and Sweden,” George said. “Another important development we are working on to is establishing a Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism, enhancing dialogue on defence-related matters, institutionalising joint service staff talks, exploring possibilities for cooperation of defence innovation connected to the work in the joint working group of defence.”
What is the significance of India-Sweden ties to that of a Strategic Partnership signify for India-Sweden defence cooperation?
The elevation of India-Sweden ties to a Strategic Partnership in Gothenburg places defence cooperation at the core of a broader agenda for stability, technology trust, and industrial collaboration. New Delhi and Stockholm have signalled that defence is no longer a narrow buyer–seller domain but a platform for co-development, co-production, and institutional linkages aligned with India’s self-reliance goals and Sweden’s high-technology strengths.
Sweden’s defence major Saab AB has been present in India for decades, most visibly through the induction of the Carl Gustaf family of shoulder-fired systems across Indian infantry formations. This long operational history has built user familiarity and trust. The new framework aims to move up the value chain – from licensed supply and maintenance to joint R&D, design participation, and local manufacturing inside India’s defence corridors.
For India, this shift supports ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-reliant India) in defence. For Sweden, it opens a pathway to scale production with an Indian industrial base and participate in one of the world’s fastest-growing defence markets.
Sweden brings globally respected capabilities in advanced combat aircraft design (like the Saab JAS 39 Gripen concepts and avionics architecture), airborne early warning and surveillance (like the GlobalEye), radar, electronic warfare, sensors, and battlefield networking, lightweight, soldier-centric weapons and munitions, and subsystems engineering and systems integration.
India brings a large and diversifying defence industrial ecosystem, expanding test ranges, labs, and defence public sector units (DPSUs) and private sector capacity, a vast user base across services, and policy push for indigenisation and exports. The synergy lies in pairing Swedish high-end subsystems and design philosophy with Indian manufacturing depth and market scale.
Linking cooperation to the Joint Working Group on Defence institutionalises innovation dialogue. This is significant because it encourages joint prototyping rather than post-facto procurement. This also aligns startups, MSMEs, and research labs on both sides, opens pathways for collaboration in AI-enabled defence systems, autonomy, secure communications, and sensor fusion, and enables predictable policy engagement at the ministerial and expert levels.
Swedish investment in India’s defence corridors - notably in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh - is strategically important. It anchors long-term industrial presence rather than project-based supply, creates skilled jobs and local vendor ecosystems, enables export from India to third markets under joint branding, and reduces lifecycle costs through local maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and spares production.
Why is this development important in the context of defence allocation in India’s Union Budget 2026-27?
It is worth mentioning here that India’s Union Budget for 2026-27 has earmarked a record ₹7.85 lakh crore for the defence services, marking the highest allocation ever for the sector. The defence outlay accounts for about 2 per cent of the estimated GDP for the next financial year and represents a 15.19 per cent increase over the Budget Estimates for 2025–26. At 14.67 per cent of total central government expenditure, defence continues to command the largest share among all ministries.
The Ministry of Defence had said, following the Union Budget announced in February this year that the enhanced allocation will not only support routine operational and modernisation requirements of the armed forces but will also meet additional financial needs arising from emergency procurement of arms and ammunition undertaken after Operation Sindoor last year, under both capital and revenue heads.
The decision to deepen engagement between national defence colleges and strategic institutions has quiet but lasting impact. This builds doctrinal familiarity and officer-level networks, promotes shared understanding on Arctic security, maritime domain awareness, hybrid threats, and cyber resilience, and facilitates table-top exercises, wargaming exchanges, and research collaboration.
Sweden’s role inside the EU’s advanced technology ecosystem means India-Sweden defence cooperation can act as a bridge to broader European industrial partnerships, particularly in dual-use tech, materials science, propulsion, and electronics.
Robinder Sachdev, strategic affairs expert and president of the New Delhi-based Imagindia think tank, is of the view that India is looking to deepen its relations with all like-minded countries where we have alignment in the world view and a stability of past relations.
“Sweden definitely is one such country which is advanced in technology and is known for its defence production also,” Sachdev told ETV Bharat. “It's Saab, Gripen aircraft, etc., which have often been in contention in India." He said that one important piece of this agreement is that in the security framework, it is about the sharing of classified information.
“So, that means definitely then that a higher level of technology exchange can be discussed,” Sachdev said. “This is to encourage further Swedish investment in defence production in India's defence corridors.” He pointed out to the fact that Saab has a submarine division also.
“So, Sweden sees those opportunities in India,” he further stated. “The point is, it could be the big ticket items or the Swedish companies could be smaller vendors supplying to other OEMs (original equipment makers)in India because there’s a value chain.”
Put together, India–Sweden defence cooperation is significant because it represents a model relationship India seeks with technologically advanced, politically reliable partners. Under the Strategic Partnership’s security pillar, defence becomes a driver of innovation, industrial growth, and long-term strategic trust - well beyond traditional military procurement.
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