India’s much-proud policy of non-alignment has run its course, with the year 2025 exposing the fragility of these ties, said geo-strategist Brahma Chellaney. He said that for a long time India’s independent course in world affairs appeared effective as its non-alignment ensured warm ties with rival powers.

In a column for Nikkei Asia, Chellaney said a series of external shocks this year revealed India’s structural weaknesses in India’s foreign policy. The cumulative effect of these shocks was a broader loss of strategic room for maneuver, Chellaney said.

The “nastiest shock” came from Washington, Chellaney said, adding that US President Donald Trump’s policy towards a “rising India became overtly punitive”. The 50 percent tariff was more than a trade dispute, he said, adding that it was a political signal that India was less of a strategic partner and more of an economic rival that needed to be squeezed.

Chellaney said Trump’s claims that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan were “diplomatically humiliating” for New Delhi, which had spent years projecting itself as a responsible provider of regional power and network security.

The buzz enjoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump had also evaporated, he said. While Washington showed similar harshness towards its other allies such as Germany and Japan, the sting was sharper for India, he added.

The freezing of ties with the United States also immediately affected India’s neighborhood. New Delhi’s assumptions that sustained engagement and economic diffusion could manage most relationships in the neighborhood crumbled by 2025.

As Western pressure redoubled, India had to reach out to China to mend relations.

“If 2025 was the year of shocks, 2026 will be the year of hard decisions. India can no longer afford reactive diplomacy cloaked in placating slogans,” Chellaney wrote.

He said the relationship with the US remains vital to India’s interests. While Indian officials have said they won’t negotiate a trade deal with a gun to their heads, India has found itself doing just that, Chellaney said. India’s BRICS chairmanship in 2026 will test its diplomatic agility, he said.

“The world has changed faster than India’s foreign policy machinery has adapted,” he said, adding that India should abandon complacency, question its own assumptions and return to the principles that once underpinned its diplomatic success.