New Delhi, December 7. India will continue to exercise “strategic autonomy” in its foreign policy and will not accept any external pressure on how it manages its relationships, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said.
Speaking at the 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on December 6, Jaishankar underlined that India maintains ties with all major powers and will not allow any country to dictate the terms of those engagements.
“For any country to expect to have a veto on how we develop our relationships with others is not fair,” he said during a conversation with NDTV’s Rahul Kanwal.
His remarks came against the backdrop of ongoing trade tensions with the US under President Donald Trump, even as New Delhi hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week. Putin’s visit, Jaishankar asserted, “should not and will not” complicate India’s relations with Washington.
On the prospects of a trade agreement with the US, Jaishankar said negotiations had resumed after a pause in August, when the Trump administration imposed a steep 50 percent tariff on Indian goods – half of it characterised as a “penalty” for India’s continued oil imports from Russia. A deal, he said, could materialise “soon”, though he refrained from giving a timeline. The talks, he added, must be “extremely judicious” and guided by what best serves Indian consumers, farmers and the middle class.
Addressing India-China ties, Jaishankar noted that several challenges in the relationship pre-date the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. He recalled the October 2024 meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia, after which the border areas have “by and large” remained stable. Peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control, he emphasised, is essential for normal bilateral relations.
Following the imposition of US tariffs, New Delhi and Beijing have also seen a gradual thaw in ties. Modi travelled to China for the SCO Summit in Tianjin in September 2025, paving the way for measures such as the resumption of direct flights.
Reiterating India’s long-held foreign policy position, Jaishankar said the country will continue to pursue an independent approach that balances its various strategic interests without aligning exclusively with any bloc.
