The Many Poles of Modi’s World

India’s strategic tango with Russia and its hard-nosed bargaining with America signal a foreign policy no longer bound to any single camp.

The world is moving into a new era-one defined unmistakably by the politics of multipolarity. Gone are the days when the global order revolved solely around a single axis the United States. The unipolar system dominated by America is gradually fading. Today, India is forging strategic partnerships with Russia on both military and economic fronts, while also negotiating trade agreements with the United States. This evolving dynamic signals India's emergence as an independent and assertive player in global diplomacy.

A U.S. delegation will soon arrive in Delhi to push a near-final trade deal, but India has dug in: tariffs must be capped at 15 percent not the 17 percent Washington wants. India will not bargain away its interests.

Under American pressure to curb Russian oil, India has trimmed imports by 10 percent, yet insists prices remain competitive; conveniently, U.S. oil and gas now arrive at similar rates. It is pragmatic hedging in a crowded geopolitical field.

Deal or no deal, India will not let Washington decide its partners. Modi’s foreign policy has recast India as an autonomous power - an evolution Putin captured crisply when he said, “this is not the India of 1947.”

Pragmatic Hedging

India’s recent gift of a Russian translation of the ‘Bhagavad Gita’ added a spiritual gloss to its diplomacy with Moscow. The text’s core lesson - that peace is preferable but force sometimes unavoidable - mirrors India’s own posture which is conciliatory in intent, prepared in practice.

New Delhi has signalled that Russia must act as it sees fit, even as channels for negotiation stay open. Neither Donald Trump’s interventions nor outside pressure can end the conflict; that hinges on whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy chooses to pursue talks in earnest.

Zelenskyy may visit India next month, though dates remain unconfirmed. Officials from both sides have been in quiet discussions for weeks, continuing the balancing act India maintained in 2024, when Narendra Modi visited Moscow and Kyiv in quick succession. India’s aim remains unchanged: to keep relations steady on both fronts while nudging the war, however cautiously, toward a political settlement.

All this underscores how dramatically different is the global order. Economically, the U.S. faces mounting debt and a weakening power base. While America clings to its unipolar aspirations, the world has inevitably moved on. China advocates a bipolar world dominated by itself and America as joint superpowers. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi envisions a truly multipolar world-with India, Russia, China, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia each acting as independent poles of power. NATO and the Global South will also form constituent poles in this expanded landscape. This strategic framework aims at connecting all poles to maintain balance and foster cooperation.

India’s leadership on this front was evident when it expanded the Group of Twenty (G20) to G21, opening doors for increased participation of African nations on the global stage.

Russia has invited India to join an exclusive trade route through the Arctic Circle-about 8,000 km away from India. Only five or six countries are members of this vital corridor, and notably, China was excluded. Additionally, Russia entrusted India with the critical task of ship-breaking on this route, despite China dominating 65 percent of global shipbuilding. These moves have unsettled both China and the U.S., underscoring Moscow’s lack of trust toward Beijing.

Another pillar of India-Russia cooperation is the ‘Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Support’ (RELOS) agreement, allowing the two countries armed forces to utilize each other's military facilities. As per this agreement, India gains access to over 40 Russian naval and air bases, including strategic sites in the Arctic and Pacific regions. Furthermore, Russia will deploy five warships, ten military aircraft, and over thirty thousand troops in India for five years. India will similarly station forces in Russia. This mutual logistic support significantly enhances India's operational reach and limits China's influence in the Indian Ocean. This arrangement is a growing source of concern for both Beijing and Washington. Any nation considering hostile action against India would now have to reconsider the formidable strategic challenge it would face.

China, for its part, is irked not merely because India buys Russian arms, but because it is securing the technology behind them. The swift co-development of the BrahMos missile realised in a mere six months was a rude awakening for Beijing. It signalled that further Russian transfers could allow India to scale up production of advanced systems, including fighter jets, within a few short years.

As the global order drifts toward multipolarity, India is finally beginning to occupy the place it has long claimed, carving out a role that is assured and sovereign.