Unaligned, non-aligned, or all-Aligned? India’s traditional foreign policy of non-alignment has been sorely tested in a polarised world, and especially after the war in Ukraine. In addition, India’s membership of Quad and SCO, BRICS and IPEF raise many questions about its foreign policy goals. With closer and closer strategic ties with the US, and concurrently worries about China at the Line of Actual Control and its other hegemonistic moves in the region increase, is this policy sustainable in the long term? In the short term, with the G20 summit in Delhi in September, can India play a "balancing power” role, or is it trying to traverse a stormy geopolitical churn with its feet in two boats?
Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor at The Hindu, one of the most respected national dailies in India. Over 28 years, she has reported on some of the most challenging stories and conflicts from diverse parts of the world including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Libya, and Syria. For the past decade, Suhasini has been covering India’s foreign policy and has written and spoken extensively on the subject, including through her weekly online show, Worldview. The personalities she has interviewed include the Indonesian President, Joko Widodo (2022), the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina (2016), the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas (2017), and India’s External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar. In 2015, Suhasini won the prestigious Prem Bhatia Award for excellence in print journalism.