HARD YEAR, HARD CHOICES

As we step into a new year, India's diplomacy finds itself standing at a complex crossroads-tested, recalibrated and compelled to defend national interest with firmness while navigating a rapidly changing global order.

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The year gone by served as a stark reminder that foreign policy today is no longer just about ceremonial visits and carefully drafted communiqués; it is about crisis management, deterrence signalling, economic resilience and asserting sovereignty in a world that increasingly thrives on power narratives. From managing an unprecedented escalation with Pakistan to recalibrating ties with Washington amid punitive tariffs and contentious immigration policies, India has had to balance firmness with restraint, narrative with nuance. The global environment itself has not been kind-economic anxieties, geopolitical rivalries, shifting alliances and ideological confrontations have reshaped old equations. What India confronted over the past year was not merely diplomatic turbulence; it was a layered test of strategic patience, maturity and clarity of purpose.