Perspective – Written by Zsolt Trembeczki
2025 represented the first true stress test of India’s multi-alignment foreign policy: U.S.–India relations visibly deteriorated, while India sought to signal the extent of its room to maneuver by emphasizing its ties with China and Russia. Both sides contributed to the tensions: The Americans through a short-term, transactional logic, and the Indians through overconfidence rooted in the Modi–Trump nexus. Beyond the symbolic display, however, the China–Russia axis offers no genuine alternative for India, which will likely need to recalibrate its strategy toward the second Trump administration. At the same time, the United States would be wise to seek to avoid such counterproductive conflicts. Although no substitute exists for the American strategic partnership from India’s perspective, the situation nonetheless presents opportunities for European actors, including Hungary.
The full analysis is available here.