India pivots defence attache network to focus on exports

India has reworked its defence attache network abroad to drive military exports, focusing on countries likely to buy weapons and systems from India rather than those selling military hardware to it, officials aware of the matter said on Monday.

- Rahul Singh

The targeted reshuffle took place in phases and will help India boost its defence exports and meet targets, the officials said. India is seeking to double its defence exports to 250,000 crore by 2029-30 — the figure reached 223,682 crore in the financial year 2024-25, representing a 12% increase over the previous year.

Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan discussed the reshuffle of the defence attaches during an interaction with the Parliamentary standing committee on defence, which tabled its latest report in the Lok Sabha last week.

“As far as the role of military diplomacy is concerned, it is a new thing and to play a role of an exporter, we have reshuffled our defence attaches. There were a large number of attaches in the countries (from) which (we) were importing equipment. They have been withdrawn and now have been distributed to those countries where defence equipment is likely to be exported,” Chauhan told the panel.