Turning crisis into opportunity: Why India must seek strategic alignment with China and Asia

The shifting sands of global geopolitics have once again brought India to a decisive juncture.

- GOPAL GOSWAMI

With Indo-American relations showing signs of stress and Washington increasingly using tariffs, sanctions, and conditionalities as tools of coercion, as PM Modi is set to meet Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, New Delhi must look beyond traditional alignments. The 21st century is Asia's century, and the greatest opportunity for India lies not in dependence on the West but in forging a pragmatic, sovereign, and cooperative partnership with China, anchored in the larger framework of an Asian economic-security coalition.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping can chart a course for reconciliation, cooperation, and strategic co-development, India and China together, with support from Japan, South Korea, and even Taiwan can reshape the global order in ways the West cannot ignore. This is not about compromise on sovereignty; it is about creating an Asian bloc capable of dictating terms on trade, technology, energy, finance, and security.

CHALLENGE: TARIFFS, SANCTIONS, AND DOLLAR DOMINANCE

The United States and its allies today use economic warfare as their primary instrument of statecraft. Whether it is unilateral sanctions, tariffs against competitive economies, or weaponisation of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, the West's approach is designed to preserve its dominance.

India has already felt the sting of secondary sanctions and pressure on defence procurements. China faces tariffs and restrictions on its chip industry and telecoms. South Korea and Japan, though US allies, have seen Washington meddle in their trade and technology supply chains. In other words, the problem is not country-specific, it is structural. No single Asian country, acting alone, can overturn this architecture. But together, Asia has the strength to push back.

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