Chief of the Army Staff, General Upendra Dwivedi, on Thursday virtually addressed the 3rd Land Forces Summit hosted by the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force (JGSDF), where he outlined India’s vision for enhanced land power cooperation in the Indo-Pacific through the proposed ‘IKIGAI’ Framework.
The high-level summit brought together Chiefs of Armies and senior military leaders from key Indo-Pacific nations, including Japan, Australia, the United States, the Philippines, and Malaysia, underscoring the growing emphasis on multilateral military collaboration amid evolving regional security challenges.
In his address, General Dwivedi presented the IKIGAI Framework as a comprehensive and structured roadmap to strengthen cooperation among Indo-Pacific land forces. Drawing from shared regional perspectives, the framework aims to enhance coordination, preparedness, trust, and collective capability to address both traditional and non-traditional security challenges.
The IKIGAI Framework is built around six core pillars:
- Interoperability and Information Sharing, to ensure seamless coordination and intelligence exchange
- Knowledge and Professional Military Education, focused on building common understanding and leadership
- International Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)
- Generative Technological Partnerships, promoting innovation and capability development
- Assurance for Security Partnerships, strengthening mutual confidence
- Integrated Logistics and Sustainment, enabling operational endurance and effectiveness
The Army Chief also highlighted three essential pillars of convergence for meaningful multilateral engagement — Shared Diagnosis, Shared Principles, and Shared Actions. He emphasised that these elements are vital for translating cooperation into tangible outcomes.
General Dwivedi noted that the IKIGAI Framework reflects a shared commitment among Indo-Pacific nations to harness collective land power in support of regional peace, stability, and prosperity, while fully respecting sovereignty and international law.
The Land Forces Summit serves as a key multilateral platform to deepen Army-to-Army defence cooperation through senior leadership interactions and structured land forces dialogue, reinforcing collective approaches to regional security in the Indo-Pacific.
