India is on a complex journey in the foreign diplomatic landscape, where it has to protect its independence and, at the same time, continue its very important relations with the United States. New Delhi is displaying how it is strengthening its strategic autonomy by keeping up with Moscow, especially in the energy sector, broadening its relationships with other countries in Asia, and yet still going on with Washington in a more measured way as far as trade barriers and economic cooperation are concerned.
A major example of India’s changing role in global politics was the SCO summit in Tianjin, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This meeting, which was without U.S. involvement, showed the new power dynamics that are shifting from the global to the regional level. Simultaneously, Russia is facilitating the imports of Indian agricultural products into its market—providing India with a new opportunity to diversify its economic relations with Russia.
This is in the context of a time frame characterized by American dominance—the period during which the U.S. went ahead with hundreds of military actions, expanded its relations with NATO, and reshaped the international system through the IMF and World Bank. Through these institutions, the U.S. promoted globalization, which was advantageous to its financial and transnational corporations but also led to the hollowing out of the U.S. and Western Europe’s industrial sector. At the same time, industrial production capacity increased in India and other Global South countries.
The changes in the global order have also resulted in China becoming a strategic adversary of the United States, while a rejuvenated, resource-rich Russia is met with suspicion by Washington.
In this situation, India’s foreign policy looks very carefully planned: it is both reaffirming its independence—mainly by energy agreements with Russia and by close relations with the powers of the region—and still keeping the door open to the U.S. by negotiating tariff reductions, thereby purporting to maintain the bipolar world or even non-alignment while tactfully playing off one against the other. This double strategy is a reflection of India’s deliberate stance that it is not getting involved in conflicts but rather giving itself the most freedom to order its own global strategy.
First of all, India is sending a message that it wants to do business with the big powers on its own terms, choosing partners from the multipolar world rather than the unipolar world state. Strategic autonomy now appears to be not only the certification of New Delhi’s international relations but also the main support of these connections.
