India’s unusually crowded diplomatic calendar reflects the turbulent era we inhabit, one defined by profound geopolitical, geoeconomic, and technological transitions. Some of the developments occupying New Delhi’s strategic thinking do not involve India directly, yet their ramifications are central to India’s strategic calculus. Multiple theaters of interest are converging on India simultaneously. The recently concluded Trump-Xi meeting unfolded almost in parallel with the BRICS foreign ministers’ gathering in New Delhi.
Around the same time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a five-nation tour covering the UAE, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy. And this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China, even as the Quad foreign ministers prepare to land in New Delhi. Layered onto this is the unresolved West Asian crisis, which continues to roil energy markets and disrupt shipping routes. The convergence of multiple theaters, crises, and strategic conversations at once makes this perhaps the most consequential test of India’s multialignment strategy and its ability to engage multiple poles simultaneously while retaining control over its own independent agency.
Autonomy Is Not Equidistance
