India and Australia have launched the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains, known as PACTS, a new framework aimed at deepening cooperation across cyber security, critical technologies, resilient supply chains and defence research. The partnership was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia and replaces the 2020 Framework Arrangement on Cyber and Cyber Enabled Critical Technology Cooperation.
According to the joint statement, the new framework builds on the two countries’ Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. It aims to promote secure supply chains, trusted digital infrastructure, technology innovation and cyber resilience across the Indo-Pacific, strengthening cooperation between governments, industry, research institutions and universities.
Five Pillars of a New Architecture
The partnership is structured around five pillars of cooperation. The first, on Supply Chain Resilience and Diversification, commits both countries to developing secure technology supply chains, establishing a bilateral trusted vendor framework, strengthening undersea cable security through the Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience, and collaborating on semiconductor and critical minerals supply chains.
The second pillar covers Critical Technologies, where both countries will deepen collaboration in artificial intelligence, space, telecommunications, biotechnology and advanced materials, supporting joint research and working on international standards for trustworthy AI. A third pillar on Cybersecurity includes plans for a streamlined bilateral cyber cooperation mechanism, expanded dialogue on data governance, joint government-industry workshops, and a cyber technology skill incubator for workforce development.
The fourth pillar, Digital Resilience, is arguably the most distinctively Indian contribution to the framework. It aims to expand cooperation in digital public infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific, supporting partner countries in adopting India’s DPI model through capacity-building programmes and pilot projects in sectors such as renewable energy, healthcare, education and social protection. The fifth pillar, Defence Research Collaboration, will deepen ties between Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, alongside joint research in maritime surveillance and advanced materials.
From a Narrow Arrangement to a Strategic Umbrella
PACTS did not emerge from nothing. Bilateral cyber and critical technology cooperation between the two countries had, since 2020, been governed by a narrower Framework Arrangement agreed under the original Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, alongside the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership, a grants programme that funded 19 collaborative research projects across four grant rounds. Those projects ranged from governance frameworks for quantum technologies to privacy standards for next-generation telecommunications networks.
PACTS supersedes that arrangement by expanding cooperation to include supply chains, digital resilience and defence research, categories that sat outside the original cyber-only mandate. Officials in New Delhi describe the shift as building on “two decades of collaborative research, operational coordination and policy engagement” between the two countries.
Reading the Geopolitics
The expanded scope reflects a wider trend among Quad partners toward treating technology supply chains as a security concern rather than a purely commercial one. Officials described the initiative as reflecting growing strategic convergence between the two Quad partners, who are increasingly working to build trusted technology ecosystems and reduce vulnerabilities in critical global supply chains. The emphasis on semiconductors, critical minerals and undersea cables mirrors concerns shared across the Indo-Pacific about overreliance on any single supplier for technologies considered foundational to both economic growth and national defence.
For India specifically, the digital resilience pillar offers a platform to export its DPI model, the identity, payments and welfare-delivery architecture built domestically over the past decade, to other Indo-Pacific nations with Australian backing. That positions India less as a recipient of technology assistance and more as a co-architect of regional digital systems, a shift from the more research-grant-oriented character of the 2020 arrangement.
Oversight and What Comes Next
The partnership will be jointly overseen by India’s Deputy National Security Advisor and Australia’s Deputy Secretary of the International and Security Group in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with an annual Senior Officials’ Meeting tasked with reviewing progress, identifying emerging cyber and technology risks, and determining new collaborative projects under each pillar. That annual review structure suggests the five pillars are meant to function as a living agenda rather than a fixed checklist, with specific projects to be identified as the partnership matures.
Both governments frame the initiative as part of a broader commitment to strengthening national security, enhancing digital resilience, building trusted technology ecosystems and supporting a secure, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific. Whether PACTS can translate that ambition into concrete outcomes, on semiconductor cooperation, cable security or DPI exports, will likely depend on how quickly the annual officials’ meetings move from setting direction to funding specific, measurable projects.
