Moving itself from an era of "non-aligned" to "poly-alignment" India has emerged as a regional military power and is inching towards becoming a global one, a US military think-tank has said.

The paper "India's Strategic Defence Transformation: Expanding Global Relationship" by Brian Hedrick of Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of US Army Department of Defence, was released on Thursday, takes a global view of India's rise as a regional and future global military power.

"India's defence establishment is undergoing an unprecedented transformation as it modernises its military, seeks strategic partnerships with the United States and other nations, and expands its influence in the Indian Ocean and beyond," writes Douglas Lovelace, Director SSI.

"This transformation includes a shift from an emphasis on the former Soviet Union as the primary supplier of defence articles to a western base of supply and an increasing emphasis on bilateral exercises and training with many of the global powers," he said.

Military Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia at the State Department, Hedrick, who has served earlier in the US missions in India and Bangladesh, said that India's interests have changed over the past decade or more, taking it from a path of nonalignment and non-commitment to having specific strategic interests on a path of "poly-alignment".

"Since 2000, India has increased the number of countries with which it has defence-specific agreements from seven to 26 by the end of 2008.

Bilateral and multilateral exercises are also an increasing feature of India's expanding defence relations as it seeks to find new technologies to transform its military from Cold War era weapons to 21st century capabilities through such opportunities.

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