FOR world leaders gathered at international summits, navigating modern foreign policy often feels less like walking a tightrope and more like playing multi-dimensional chess in a storm. Donald Trump has made no secret of his irritation toward the BRICS grouping, viewing its growing influence with deep suspicion. Yet, as India steps onto the world stage hosting major diplomatic convenings, it finds itself occupying a singularly intriguing space: sitting at the table of BRICS alongside Beijing and Moscow while simultaneously nurturing a crucial strategic partnership with Washington.
To unpractised observers, managing these starkly opposing alignments appears contradictory, even unsustainable. To diplomats in Delhi, however, this is business as usual, a contemporary continuation of a long-established tradition of Indian statecraft.
Historically, Delhi has rarely bound itself to rigid geopolitical blocs. During the Cold War, India pioneered Non-Alignment. In practice, that policy leaned heavily toward the Soviet Union, yet diplomatic and economic relations with the United States remained intact. A similar pragmatic flexibility governs its West Asian policy. India maintains warm relations with Israel while simultaneously strengthening economic and diplomatic ties with Gulf powers such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Iran.
Domestic political shifts occasionally nudge the needle. For instance, the Bharatiya Janata Party government under Narendra Modi exhibits a stronger ideological affinity toward Israel and has aligned more closely with Washington than previous administrations. Yet national interest consistently overrides ideological purity.
When external pressure clashes with national priorities, Delhi acts with calculated independence. Consider energy security and defense procurement. When American sanctions targeted Tehran, India reduced its Iranian oil imports to zero, virtually halting bilateral trade to satisfy Washington’s demands. But when similar pressure was applied regarding Russia following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India held its ground. Seizing on discounted crude, Indian purchases of Russian oil surged, driving bilateral trade from $13 billion in 2022 to an astonishing $69 billion, a jump of more than 500 percent.
A similar story unfolds in defense. Despite the looming threat of sanctions under America’s Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), India proceeded with the purchase of Russian S-400 anti-missile defense systems and has kept options open for next-generation platforms like the S-500.
Delhi's Geopolitical Portfolio at a Glance
This flexibility extends directly to security arrangements in Asia. India joined the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) alongside America, Japan, and Australia to counter Chinese assertiveness. Yet, as Washington’s diplomatic stance fluctuates between talks of de-risking and direct economic bargaining, India continues to secure its own backyard through direct defense exports. Delhi has actively supplied BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to Southeast Asian nations involved in maritime border disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea. Deliveries to the Philippines have been complemented by strong interest and deals with Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Diplomatic Arena
Key Regional Partners
Core Engagement Strategy
Strategic Objective
Western Alliance
United States, Quad Nations
High-tech trade, defense cooperation, joint naval exercises
Counter balance regional hegemony and power economic growth
Eurasian Formations
BRICS, SCO (Russia, China)
Multilateral dialogues, trade agreements, energy imports
Maintain a multipolar world order and secure energy supply lines
Southeast Asia
Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia
BrahMos missile sales and maritime security support
Establish a defensive buffer across disputed maritime routes
Remarkably, India executes this robust defense strategy while actively participating in multilateral forums co-led by China, such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the latter including its long-time adversary, Pakistan.
Critics often view these moves as contradictory or opportunistic. In reality, they reflect the defining reality of modern diplomacy: we have entered an era of multi-polarity and multi-alignment. Geopolitics is no longer a binary choice between rival superpowers. Mature diplomacy requires navigating overlapping, competing agendas without sacrificing national sovereignty. By prioritizing its own economic and security imperatives above foreign expectations, India demonstrates that in a fragmented global order, independence remains the ultimate diplomatic currency.