Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Dec 20: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said India’s task of engaging the United States and managing relations with China has become significantly more complex, reflecting deeper shifts underway in the global political and economic order.
Jaishankar observed that the international environment is no longer shaped by the assumptions that defined the post–Cold War era, with power balances shifting and geopolitical rivalries sharpening. According to him, dealing with the US today involves a very different set of expectations and uncertainties compared to the past.
He noted that Washington is increasingly driven by transactional considerations, bilateral outcomes and domestic political pressures, rather than acting as the anchor of a predictable, rules-based global system. For India, this has made engagement with the US more layered and demanding.
While strategic cooperation between the two countries continues to deepen in areas such as defence, critical technologies, supply chains and the Indo-Pacific, issues related to trade, tariffs and policy unpredictability add complexity. Political developments in the US, he said, now have a direct impact on economic decisions, making long-term planning more challenging for partners like India.
Referring to China, Jaishankar said the challenge is both immediate and structural. India’s ties with China remain shaped by an unresolved boundary dispute, recurring military tensions along the Line of Actual Control and a broader strategic rivalry in Asia. Although both sides seek to avoid escalation, trust remains fragile.
He pointed out that China’s growing economic strength, technological ambitions and assertive regional posture add further layers of complexity. For India, managing China is not limited to border issues but also involves reducing trade and supply chain vulnerabilities, responding to Beijing’s influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, and competing where necessary while keeping channels open for limited cooperation.
Jaishankar also highlighted that the world is moving towards fragmented power structures and fluid alignments, where no single country dominates global outcomes. Traditional alliances are increasingly giving way to issue-based partnerships, placing a premium on diplomatic agility.
In such an environment, India must engage multiple major powers simultaneously, even when those powers are at odds with one another. He noted that developments such as the war in Ukraine have made India’s engagement with Russia more sensitive, while Europe is emerging as an important but evolving partner facing its own economic and security challenges.
The minister said these dynamics underline the growing difficulty of practising strategic autonomy. He stressed that strategic autonomy today does not mean detachment, but constant calibration — strengthening ties with the US without being drawn into confrontational blocs, managing competition with China without normalising border instability, and maintaining diversified partnerships to avoid overdependence.
Jaishankar’s remarks suggest that India views the current global transition as a long-term shift rather than a temporary disruption, with diplomacy becoming increasingly pragmatic, flexible and driven by national interest in a multipolar and contested world order.