India's Strategic Autonomy in a Multipolar World
"Strategic autonomy" — the policy of engaging multiple great powers without binding alignment with any — is the conceptual foundation of India's foreign policy. Under the current government, this has been articulated as "multi-alignment" and an active pursuit of independent relationships rather than passive non-alignment.
- India maintains simultaneous strategic partnerships with the US (QUAD, defence agreements), Russia (S-400, energy), EU (FTA, technology), and Gulf states (economic ties, diaspora) — even as these partners are in tension with each other.
- The decision to stop purchasing Russian oil (part of the India-US trade deal conditions) represents a partial shift in multi-alignment under specific economic incentives — a calibrated adjustment rather than full alignment.
- India's G20 Presidency (2023) and membership of BRICS, SCO, and QUAD simultaneously exemplifies the breadth of its multi-alignment architecture.
- Jaishankar's doctrine: India should approach international relations not as a "junior partner" to any power but as an "autonomous actor" that uses its strategic location, demographic weight, and economic scale as leverage.
● Tracked since February 17, 2026 · last seen February 25, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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