Can India Exercise Strategic Autonomy When The US And Israel Give No Room For It? – OpEd |
New Delhi also finds itself in the US camp without deriving its benefits.
Within the space of a year, India has had to relinquish its bid to exercise strategic autonomy based on its own power and influence and become a junior partner in a US-led alliance.
This is a far cry from the era of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, when India was nonaligned and yet had a significant moral/political influence in the world. It condemned unlawful actions by the big powers, especially the Western powers, and led peace efforts in various theatres of conflict.
It was able to secure the cooperation of the Soviets as well as the US and the West for its economic development. India’s non-alignment was touted as a path to peace.
This is in sharp contrast to the way that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been touting its policy of “strategic autonomy”. It smacks of the arrogance of a parvenu, which has triggered the animosity of the established powers and apprehensions among small powers, especially the neighbours.
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the Raisina Dialogue Middle East, held in January 2025, that India had wide interests and growing capabilities and was contemplating the world with confidence.
“We certainly recognise the risks, but we are equally cognizant of the opportunities. For us, the Middle East is an extended neighbourhood with which we have now re-connected in full measure. It is a crucial passage to the world beyond, whether we speak of Africa or the Atlantic. It is about partners with whom we have traditions and comfort. What is needed most at this time is a deepening of our engagement, a prospect made possible today by more conversations and frequent exchanges. Raisina Middle East can make a definitive contribution in that regard,” he said.
Contrast this confident projection of India with what Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue 2026 in New Delhi on March 5 after what happened in Iran and the Middle East. India’s helplessness was evident in Jaishankar’s speech. Caution was the keynote, not assertions.
He said that the Raisina Dialogue 2026 will be “on the need to de-risk and diversify. It would also be about habits and assumptions — where they still apply and where we need to get over them. Indians must continue to develop a sharp global awareness — both of the world and of India. And we must constantly update both.”
Jaishankar did not mention the ongoing US-Israeli attacks on Iran or the latter’s retaliation, events which are threatening oil supplies, international shipping and the lives of 9 million Indians working in the Middle East. The fear of antagonising the US and Israel was palpable, as was the apprehension of the eventual emergence of a hostile Islamist regime in Iran and other countries in the Middle East.
The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the Israelis was not mentioned even in passing, although Khamenei was very friendly with India, allowing it to build the Chabahar port and create pathways to Central Asia, obviating the need to pass through hostile Iran and unstable Afghanistan.
Milestones on the Way to Change
On April 7, 2021, USS John Paul Jones asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India’s prior consent, consistent with international law. India requires prior consent for military exercises or passage through its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.
But the US said that this claim is inconsistent with international law and added that the freedom of navigation operation (“FONOP”) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law. The US also said that it was challenging “India’s excessive maritime claim.”
India had no option but to accept the US contention, being the lesser of the two powers.
In May 2025, after the four-day air war with Pakistan, New Delhi again realised that its estimation of its own power was woefully short of the requirement even to subdue a weak neighbour like Pakistan. In alliance with China, Pakistan was able to fight the war. Even though the denouement bruised its ego, New Delhi had to settle for a ceasefire mediated by US President Donald Trump.
Trump kept rubbing salt into Delhi’s wound by repeatedly saying that India had lost nine “beautiful planes” and simultaneously declaring that the Pakistani army chief Asim Munir was his “favourite Field Marshal”. Trump was deliberately equating (or “hyphenating” as the Indians say) India and Pakistan when India felt that being two asymmetrical countries, they could not sit at the same table.
Unequal Trade Agreement
Trump went on to slap 50% tariff on Indian goods as punishment for buying oil from Russia, defying an US sanction. Later, he reduced the tariff to 18% but forced India into a framework agreement on trade under which India would allow US agricultural products previously disallowed to protect Indian farmers, bring duties on other US goods to zero and buy US goods valued at US$ 500 billion over the next few years.
There was no mention in the framework agreement of India being barred from buying Russian oil. However, a top US official leading his country’s delegation at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi said that India should buy US oil.
Perhaps due to the current difficult situation, the US has not made a fuss about India getting some Russia now. Russian ships are said to be coming to India with oil.
Sinking of Iranian Vessel
In Jaishankar’s speech, there was no mention of the torpedoing of the Iranian warship IRIS Dena 40 km from Galle in Sri Lanka, very near India. The vessel was returning to Iran after participating in the Indian Fleet Review off Vishakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal. Swallowing the disregard for India’s sensitivities, New Delhi trotted out the excuse that once the review was over, its participants were no longer the navy’s “guests” and added that the downing of IRNS Dena did not take place in Indian waters. But this excuse contradicted New Delhi’s oft-repeated claim that it is the net security provider in the Indian Ocean.
Not Condoling Ayatollah Khamenei’s Death
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledging in the Israeli parliament strong and lasting support to Israel in combating terrorism (which to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, was “Islamic” terrorism), New Delhi baulked at condoling the death of Ayatollah Khamenei at the hands of Israel.
It was four days after his killing that India condoled his death. And that was not done by the Foreign Minister Jaishankar, but by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who visited the Iranian Embassy to sign the condolence book.
In a bald statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the Foreign Secretary “visited the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and signed the condolence book, on behalf of the people and the Government of India, on the demise of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei.”
The text of Misri’s condolence message was not made public, but sources told The Wire that he wrote just two sentences – “Sincerest condolences on behalf of the government and people of India. We pray for peace for the departed soul.”
Constrained by its weaker position vis-à-vis the US and with no friends to seek help from, India is now constrained to lie low and not trumpet its policy of exercising strategic autonomy.