ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Strategic Autonomy Revisited: India’s Geopolitical Balancing Between Russia, the West, and China in the Post–Ukraine War International Order

The foreign policy of India since the Ukraine War has shown an extremely subtle way of maintaining strategic autonomy while at the same time attempting to balance out long-standing relationships with Russia on one hand and increasing involvement with the West on the other while exercising extreme caution with respect to the development of India-China relations. This research will be examining how the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022 has caused the world to become increasingly more polarized which is causing India to have to continue to attempt to navigate the tensions of being in a multipolar world and to avoid completely being aligned with any of the major power blocks. Historical alliances as well as the current changes in the geopolitical landscape are analyzed to illustrate the many ways in which India is currently attempting to maintain its dependence on Russia for defense, as well as increase its economic and security cooperation with the West, as well as to reduce the tensions with China on the border. It is found in this study that India's actions to remain neutral (or balanced) between competing powers will strengthen India's place in a multipolar world; however, India still faces many obstacles in the form of the growing alignment between China and Russia. Therefore, the approach that India has taken will not only preserve India's autonomy, but it will also contribute to the stabilization of the world through the creation of multi-alliance approaches.