Atmanirbhar Bharat in defence production is as much about partnerships as self-reliance. Comment with reference to recent India-Europe defence collaborations.

Self-reliance in defence, under Atmanirbhar Bharat, does not mean autarky. With indigenous defence production rising to about ₹1.78 lakh crore and exports touching a record level in 2025-26 [1], India's growth has been driven as much by co-development with foreign partners as by purely domestic effort — a reality best illustrated by recent India-Europe engagements.

Partnerships as the engine of self-reliance

• Co-development and co-production, not off-the-shelf purchase, is now the template. India and Belgium, at the March 2025 meeting between the Raksha Mantri and HRH Princess Astrid with Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken, agreed to deepen defence-industrial collaboration and explore an institutionalised mechanism [2].
• Supply-chain integration builds indigenous capacity: Belgian firms were invited to expand their footprint in India and to integrate Indian vendors into their global supply chains [2], converting Indian MSMEs into tier-suppliers rather than mere buyers.
• France offers the mature template — the Horizon 2047 Roadmap commits both sides to co-design, co-development and co-production, with the P-75 Scorpene submarines built at Mazagon Dock and production expanded in India, including for third countries [3].
• Technology absorption has precedent: the Devasthal Optical Telescope, built jointly by ARIES (India) and AMOS (Belgium), shows Indo-Belgian capacity for high-technology joint projects [2].
• Strategic diversification: engaging European middle powers, including on Indo-Pacific maritime cooperation [2], reduces dependence on any single supplier — itself a form of strategic autonomy.

Limits of the partnership route

• Such initiatives remain framework-stage; the India-Belgium mechanism is only "to be explored", not concluded [2].
• Genuine transfer of critical technologies — engines, sensors, seekers — remains the hardest bargain; without it, co-production risks becoming licensed assembly.
• Domestic capability still rests on indigenous effort: over 5,500 items across five Positive Indigenisation Lists, with more than 3,000 already indigenised [1].

Thus partnerships and self-reliance are complementary, not competing. India's optimal path is to use foreign collaborations as accelerators — insisting on technology transfer, design ownership and export rights — while deepening the domestic industrial and R&D base. Realised this way, Atmanirbharta becomes not isolation but confident interdependence, positioning India as a trusted node in global defence supply chains by 2047.