Between strategic autonomy and global opportunity

India stands at an inflection point — a country aspiring all-round growth navigating stormy global currents while staying true to an increasingly self-defined vision of national purpose.

- Anil Wadhwa

The year gone by has been marked by turbulence: Shifting US policy priorities, recalibrated global alliances, and economic headwinds forced India to rely less on old assumptions and more on its own resilience and agency. As we step into 2026, India’s ascent is neither linear nor assured. It is being rewritten in real time in trade corridors, diplomatic parleys, and strategic sea lanes and shaped by a pragmatic pursuit of national interests that goes beyond the comforts of old partnerships.

One of the clearest shifts has been in India’s relationship with the US. What once appeared to be a steadily deepening strategic embrace rooted in shared democratic values and a mutual interest in countering regional hegemonism in the Indo-Pacific has become more transactional and, at times, fraught. Under the second Trump administration, the framework that underscored two decades of growing cooperation has given way to a harder-edged, commerce-first calculation. Trade sanctions, punitive tariffs, and a US foreign policy that now prioritises domestic industry have unsettled India’s strategic calculus. The 2025 US National Security Strategy departs from decades of outward-looking engagement and recasts alliances as “investments whose returns are constantly reevaluated”. This postulate has weakened the implicit umbilical security cord, which was increasingly being taken for granted in India not as an allied strategy but as an insurance from a like-minded partner.

From the Indian perspective, the drift in bilateral relations from strategic alignment to transactional tie-ups is a sobering reality check. After decades of Washington viewing India as a cornerstone of its Indo-Pacific strategy, recent developments suggest that the US may be recalibrating its priorities toward internal economic renewal and away from global commitments.