India’s foreign and strategic policy in 2026 will be shaped less by optimism than by hard choices, according to Nitin Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief of StratNewsGlobal, who outlined a sobering landscape of challenges during a wide-ranging interview.
At the core, Gokhale argues, lies China. Despite episodic diplomatic engagement and partial de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control, Beijing remains India’s principal long-term competitor. China’s military build-up, economic leverage, and willingness to undercut India in multilateral forums leave little room for complacency. Pakistan, he adds, is best understood as a derivative of this larger China challenge—sustained politically, economically, and militarily by Beijing.
Managing this pressure, Gokhale stresses, ultimately depends on India’s economic trajectory. Sustained growth of around 7 per cent annually is not just a development goal but a strategic necessity, underpinning military capability and diplomatic influence alike.
Alongside China, India’s relationship with the United States presents its own contradictions. While political ties have grown strained—particularly after New Delhi refused to endorse former President Donald Trump’s claims of mediating India–Pakistan tensions—working-level cooperation remains robust. Military-to-military engagement, defence co-development, technology access, and trade negotiations continue largely unhindered. Yet Gokhale warns that a trust deficit at the political level may prove difficult to repair quickly.
Russia completes what he describes as a complex strategic triangle. India has resisted Western pressure to downgrade ties with Moscow, particularly over energy purchases, arguing that its relationship with Russia is autonomous and historically rooted. At the same time, New Delhi watches uneasily as Moscow grows more dependent on Beijing, raising questions about Russia’s role in any future India–China crisis.
These great-power dynamics inevitably spill into India’s neighbourhood. From Bangladesh and Nepal to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, smaller states increasingly hedge by playing China, the US, and India against one another. Gokhale notes that this is not unique to South Asia, arguing that no major power today enjoys uncontested influence in its backyard.
India’s response, he suggests, has been calibrated patience—avoiding overreaction, waiting out political transitions, and positioning itself as a reliable, long-term partner.
Looking ahead, Gokhale highlights three imperatives: keeping the economy strong, accelerating indigenous capabilities in emerging technologies such as AI and quantum systems, and building a military ready for a potential two-front challenge. Equally critical, he adds, is internal security, with new forms of radicalisation and “white-collar terrorism” emerging as underappreciated risks.
For India in 2026, the task is not choosing sides, but sustaining balance in an increasingly unforgiving world.
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
