The foreign policy of India in 2025 was characterised by managing deteriorating ties with Washington, cautiously thawing relations with Beijing, deliberately intensifying cooperation with Moscow in an increasingly polarised global order.[1] The 50 percent tariffs on Indian exports by the US President Trump and his dismissive rhetoric pushed the US-India relations to their lowest point in years, although the defence cooperation was still institutionalised by renewed framework agreements.[2] Parallel U.S. pressure, paradoxically pushed New Delhi toward a tactical rapprochement with China, marked by the Modi-Xi meeting at the side-lines of SCO summit and reopened border trade routes, designed to stabilize the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and offset economic shocks without abandoning post-Galwan vigilance.[3] Meanwhile, India reiterated Russia as a strategic partner by hosting Putin, and ensuring energy security and joint defence production despite Trump’s repeated threat of sanctions.[4] To New Delhi, 2025 required complicated multi-alignment: rebalancing each relationship, not to abandon any partner, but to gain the most out of the changing constraints without getting caught in the traps of great power blocs.
