Independent India has utilised its armed forces to progress its international relations predominantly by rendering assistance for disaster relief, peacekeeping, and capacity-building through professional military training. The Indian Ministry of Defence considers improving defence cooperation with other countries essential for the nation's security, promoting mutual trust, and conflict prevention and resolution. India's defence cooperation is decided at the highest level involving the Cabinet

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... mmittee for Security and National Security Council. The scale and scope of India's defence diplomacy has steadily expanded since the end of the Cold War, but a number of factors, both organisational and political, continue to constrain its reach and effectiveness, and the Ministries of External Affairs and of Defence do not seem to agree when it comes to defining the objectives of India's military diplomacy. The country's aim to maintain strategic autonomy tends to reduce the intensity of its military partnerships, while the political and bureaucratic leadership continues to recoil at the idea of power projection and developing expeditionary capabilities for the Indian armed forces. The national aspiration of becoming a dominant regional power remains somewhat unrealised.