June 30, 2025
Lindsey Ford, Senior Fellow, ORF America spoke with Kings & States about the U.S. strategy on China, India, and its own power with the Indo-Pacific:
India is a major power in Asia and a close partner to the United States, yet it follows its own strategic path on many key issues. How do you see India’s role in a balancing coalition against China? Do you expect India to take a more active stance or remain strategically rather non-aligned?
I think India is always going to be on India’s side, and they’ve been quite clear about that. But that doesn’t mean that there is not increasing alignment between the United States, Europe and India on numerous issues. India is in a really challenging neighborhood where it doesn’t necessarily have a lot of friendly neighbors. It is facing a very large adversary in Beijing that is outpacing it economically and technologically right now. That means New Delhi needs to collaborate more closely with the United States, other Asian allies, and partners in Europe. And I think you see that strategy underway. People in the Indian leadership increasingly talk about India’s approach as one of multi-alignment instead of non-alignment.