As Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit later this month, and India prepares to host Russian President Vladimir Putin later this year, New Delhi is signalling a decisive shift-asserting itself as an independent pole in global affairs, shaped as much by its own historical impulses as by the disruptions of the Trump era.India’s foreign policy has consistently avoided subordination to any single global bloc. From Nehru’s early advocacy of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the 1950s to the present era of multi-alignment, New Delhi has sought to preserve independence of judgment. The term “strategic autonomy,” which gained currency in the 1990s, captures this instinct well. Under Prime Minister Modi, this has translated into building coalitions not just across the Global South but also with the US, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and other major partners-reflecting India’s determination to engage widely without being locked into rigid blocs.