Asia Power Index 2025: India Secures 3rd Rank

The Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index 2025 (7th edition) has been released, and India has achieved a historic milestone by ranking 3rd out of 27 countries and territories in comprehensive power across the Indo-Pacific — placing it firmly behind only the United States and China.

For the first time ever, India has crossed the crucial threshold to be classified as a “major power” in Asia, cementing its position as the clear third pole in the region’s power hierarchy.

Asia Power Index 2025 – Top 5 Rankings

Why India Jumped in 2025

India recorded the largest absolute gain (+2 points) among all 27 countries, driven by strong performance across multiple parameters:

• Economic Capability: Continued post-COVID recovery and one of the fastest-growing major economies
• Military Capability: Steady modernization, increased defence spending, and indigenous production
• Future Resources: Young demographics, expanding tech ecosystem, and growing R&D base
• Diplomatic & Economic Relationships: Enhanced global leverage through Quad, G20 leadership, and strategic partnerships
• Geopolitical Connectivity: Rising role in Indo-Pacific security architecture

Despite these gains, the gap with China remains significant — China scores 73.7 compared to India’s 40.0 (almost 1.8 times higher).

Key Takeaways from Asia Power Index 2025

• The United States remains the undisputed leader in Asia-Pacific power (81.7/100)
• China is slowly closing the gap with the US (+1 point this year)
• India is pulling away from Japan and the rest of the pack, solidifying a clear three-tier structure: → Tier 1: US & China → Tier 2: India (emerging major power) → Tier 3: Japan, Russia, South Korea, Australia
• Russia records its first overall power increase in Asia since 2019, boosted by deeper ties with China and North Korea
• Japan’s power remains largely flat despite challenges in several metrics
• Southeast Asian nations show modest incremental gains

What the Asia Power Index Measures

Launched in 2018 by Australia’s Lowy Institute, the index evaluates 27 countries across 131 indicators grouped into eight themes:

1. Economic Capability
2. Military Capability
3. Resilience
4. Future Resources
5. Economic Relationships
6. Defence Networks
7. Diplomatic Influence
8. Cultural Influence

It is one of the most comprehensive publicly available measures of national power in the Indo-Pacific region.

The New Reality of Asian Power in 2025

The 2025 edition confirms a structural shift: Asia now has three major powers for the first time in the post-Cold War era — the United States, China, and India.

While India still trails China by a wide margin, its trajectory is steeply upward, and it has decisively broken away from the middle-power pack.

As the Lowy Institute notes:

“India’s economic and military capability have both increased… Its economy has continued to grow strongly and made small gains in terms of its geopolitical relevance.”

Final Word

India is now officially Asia’s third great power — a position that looked distant even a decade ago. The journey from here to seriously challenging China will take decades, but 2025 marks the year India irreversibly stepped onto the top table of Asian power.

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