Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emerging victorious after his country announced election results on Thursday, may begin his next term with renewed attentions toward national security issues.

Modi won a landslide re-election victory, with his Bharatiya Janata Party securing a commanding parliamentary majority in the largest democratic exercise in history. That could see India taking a more assertive stance against its neighbor Pakistan — and against China's growing dominance in Asia. That, in turn, may also mean a closer defense relationship with Washington.

"The Modi government has continued deepening defense and strategic ties with the United States," said Alyssa Ayres, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The geopolitical backdrop for that deepening has been China's increased assertiveness across the entire Indian Ocean region, and that continues as well."

In his wide ranging campaign, Modi's strong nationalist tone won him wide support and pushed citizens sitting on the sidelines to give him their vote.

"I voted for him because I didn't think Congress, the opposition, could stand up to Pakistan and China," Maya, a 35-year-old woman based in Mumbai, told CNBC.

Given the support for the prime minister's attitude to defense, he's likely to double down on that strategy, experts said.

"Modi's muscular national security approach just received overwhelming approval. We should expect to see more of it in the next five years," said Vipin Narang, associate professor at MIT.

Narang noted that the Indian leader could use the present opportunity to "improve the defense forces and acquisition process" for his country — or he could aim to settle scores with Pakistan. If that happens, according to the MIT expert, there could be repeat performances of India's airstrike on Pakistani land earlier this year. According to Narang, that sort of action is "resolve without real results."