Between Autonomy and Alignment: Can India Still Choose Its Own Foreign Policy ?

India’s multi-alignment has widened its diplomatic space amidst an intensifying US–China rivalry, China’s expanding influence in the Indian Ocean, and the Pakistan–Türkiye–Saudi Arabia convergence. Strategic autonomy can no longer rest on diplomatic flexibility alone; it must be converted into real leverage through economic resilience, technological capability, energy security, defence capacity and diversified partnerships. India must deepen ties with the US, Europe, Japan, the Gulf and the Global South without allowing any partnership to become a dependency. It must also manage complex relationships with Russia, Iran, Israel and China while protecting its core security interests. As great-power competition sharpens, India’s ability to preserve policy independence will also be tested time and again. It will depend on building credible national strength and shaping regional balances. The CRF event brings experts together to examine whether India can continue to choose its own path in an increasingly polarised, world with US trying to retain its power while China is engaging to build its own China-centric world.