Australia’s first woman Chief of Joint Capabilities Lieutenant General Susan Coyle recently visited India as part of her participation in the Raisina Dialogue 2026. During his visit, she also held high-level engagements with several defence officials, aimed at strengthening the growing India-Australia defence partnership.
Coyle’s visit marks a significant chapter in India and Australia ties as both the countries eye deepening strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. Coyle’s engagements in the Indian capital included meetings with senior military leaders, participation in discussions at the Raisina Dialogue and a tribute to fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial.
Meeting with Army Chief focuses on joint capabilities
Lt Gen Coyle began her visit with a meeting with Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, where the two sides discussed expanding cooperation in several areas of military collaboration. The talks focused on joint training and exercises, capability development, interoperability between the armed forces.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening defence ties and working together to ensure regional stability and security across the Indo-Pacific.
Strategic discussions with the Indian Air Force
During her visit, Coyle also met Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Vice Chief of the Indian Air Staff, to explore deeper cooperation between the two air forces. Their discussions covered a broad range of strategic areas including joint staff engagement, Indo-Pacific security perspectives, collaborative research and development, professional military education.
They also talked about emerging domains such as cyber security and space situational awareness. These interactions reflect the growing focus of both countries on advanced technology cooperation and multi-domain military capabilities.
Raisina Dialogue: Coyle highlights global defence production challenge
Speaking at a panel discussion during the Raisina Dialogue, Lt Gen Coyle highlighted a major challenge currently facing militaries worldwide, the growing demand for weapons and defence platforms amid limited industrial capacity. “The entire globe is after capacity, the entire globe wants more weapons, they want more military platforms, but there is only so much capacity that an industry can provide,” she said.
Coyle emphasised that many countries are focusing on “deterrence by denial”, strengthening military preparedness to discourage conflict rather than escalate it.
She also underlined Australia’s interest in deepening defence industrial cooperation with partners such as India, stressing the need to integrate supply chains and scale production to maintain stability across the Indo-Pacific region.
Tribute at National War Memorial
During her visit, Lt Gen Coyle paid tribute to India’s fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial, laying a wreath in honour of military personnel who sacrificed their lives in service. The ceremony also recalled the historic military connections between India and Australia.
More than 1,300 Indian troops served alongside Australian forces during the First World War, including in the Gallipoli campaign, providing logistics, medical and operational support.
These shared wartime experiences are often cited as an early foundation of the modern India–Australia defence relationship.
India-Australia defence partnership
In recent years, defence cooperation between India and Australia has expanded significantly through naval exercises such as AUSINDEX, operational coordination in the Indo-Pacific, strategic consultations and intelligence cooperation, collaboration under the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).
The Quad, which includes India, Australia, the United States and Japan, focuses on promoting regional security, technological cooperation and economic resilience across the Indo-Pacific.
Appointed Chief of Joint Capabilities in July 2024, Lt Gen Susan Coyle became the first woman to hold the position in Australia’s defence forces. She oversees key capability areas including space operations, cyber capabilities, national defence support systems.