India’s Defence Acquisition Council announced on 20 March that the Ministry of Defence had approved guidelines to shorten the timelines for the country’s defence procurement process. Cutting procurement timelines may impact India’s localisation initiatives.
Canada is diversifying its international defence partners amid the rise in US tariffs. To this end, Canada will develop an arctic radar missile-detection system with Australia and is discussing joining the EU’s military industry ReArm Europe Plan. The country has also launched a review of its planned F-35 purchase from Lockheed Martin.
On 9 March, Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umerov participated in the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) meeting, where the defence ministers of Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania outlined new initiatives to support Ukraine.
German conglomerate TKMS has signed a letter of intent with Norwegian shipyard Ulstein Verft to cooperate on Germany’s bid for Norway’s frigate requirement. TKMS is offering its F-127 frigate design for the competition.
ASFAT, a Turkish state-owned defence contractor, signed a partnership agreement on 6 February with Thailand’s government-owned defence firm United Defense Technology (UDT) to bid for the Royal Thai Navy’s (RTN) Frigate Procurement Project.
France’s CMN Naval and Emirati conglomerate EDGE Group have formally agreed to create an Abu Dhabi–based shipbuilding joint venture. The joint venture, AD NAVAL, announced on 19 March, follows an initial partnership agreement signed between the two parties at IDEX 2025.