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India's Strategic Autonomy and Multi-Alignment

India's foreign policy has evolved from classical Non-Alignment (Cold War era) to a doctrine of "strategic autonomy" — the freedom to engage with multiple power centres based on national interest rather than ideological bloc membership. In the contemporary context, this manifests as "multi-alignment" — India maintains partnerships with the US, Russia, China, EU, Arab states, and Israel simultaneously.

Key details
  • Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): founded 1961 in Belgrade; India was a founding member with Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno, Nkrumah
  • India's current approach: issue-based coalitions; engages both Quad (security) and SCO (with Russia, China); both BRICS and G20 (economic governance); BIMSTEC and ASEAN (regional)
  • India's Gaza position: consistently supports a two-state solution (Palestine and Israel), opposes civilian casualties, abstains or votes against Israel in some UN resolutions while maintaining diplomatic ties with Israel
  • India's principle: "strategic ambiguity" — never fully aligning with any camp in deeply contested geopolitical disputes
  • India has observer status in the Arctic Council, participated in G7 outreach summits, and now the Board of Peace
In the news

Tracked since February 20, 2026 · last seen August 11, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes

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