NEW YORK — The United States is increasingly following the diplomatic path of “strategic autonomy” that India has pursued for years, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said, pointing to Washington’s expanding relationships with countries including China, Russia and Ukraine.
Jaishankar made the remarks Monday during a conversation with Daniel Russel, a former US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at an event hosted by the Asia Society in New York.
Discussing the changing geopolitical landscape, Jaishankar said Washington was now doing what India had long practiced by maintaining relationships with countries that have complex or even conflicting ties with one another.
“You are having a relationship with China, you are having a relationship with Russia, you are having a relationship with Ukraine,” Jaishankar said, adding that the United States was also working with countries across Asia and Europe.
He argued that such an approach increasingly reflected the realities of contemporary international relations, in which countries seek to maintain multiple partnerships rather than align exclusively with a single power.
During the discussion, Russel referred to the challenges of pursuing a multi-aligned foreign policy and questioned India’s approach to balancing relationships among major powers.
In response, Jaishankar said the United States itself was now practicing a similar form of multi-directional diplomacy as it sought to manage increasingly complicated geopolitical relationships.
The Indian foreign minister described the shift as part of a broader transformation in global politics. He recalled an earlier period when countries were encouraged to limit their strategic options and deepen ties with particular partners, while major powers themselves retained multiple options.
According to Jaishankar, that distinction is now fading, with countries increasingly maintaining relationships openly across competing geopolitical blocs.
He said the evolution of international relations was contributing to the emergence of a more multipolar world, in which countries have greater scope to pursue independent foreign-policy choices.
Jaishankar also stressed the importance of pragmatic diplomacy based on national interests. He said countries were increasingly seeking to maximise their interests by assessing individual situations and pursuing the opportunities available to them.
His comments come amid a broader realignment in global diplomacy, as major powers seek to maintain strategic partnerships across multiple regions while managing competition and cooperation simultaneously.
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