Foreign Policy & Security

Raising ambition in the India-New Zealand partnership

Raising ambition in the India-New Zealand partnership

By Dhruva Jaishankar

The India-New Zealand partnership has benefited in recent years from top-down political attention, a strong people-to-people foundation, and external impulses compelling both New Delhi and Wellington to diversify their partnerships. The next few years represent an opportunity to build upon the foundations of an FTA and Strategic Partnership and construct a relationship that is more than two-dimensional.  

India and Taiwan’s Evolving Entente Commerciale: Trade and Informal Defense Cooperation Between Taiwan-India

India and Taiwan’s Evolving Entente Commerciale: Trade and Informal Defense Cooperation Between Taiwan-India

By Benjamin Tkach and Vasabjit Banerjee

We evaluate cooperative steps that both India and Taiwan have taken in the defense arena, demonstrating how mutual antagonist China, economic ties, and budding security coordination are creating an entente.

India’s Defence Export Rise Opens a Door for Australia

India’s Defence Export Rise Opens a Door for Australia

By Dhruva Jaishankar

The new joint defense declaration between India and Australia articulated a more ambitious objective of defense industrial cooperation, including to “develop arrangements for advanced defense science and technology collaboration.” This may appear challenging, but India has made remarkable developments in its defense industrial capabilities over the past five years. These offer little-appreciated opportunities for many of its partners, including Australia.

Beyond the NZ-India Free Trade Agreement: What Comes Next?

Beyond the NZ-India Free Trade Agreement: What Comes Next?

By Dhruva Jaishankar

A world in which freedom of navigation or energy supplies can be imperiled by the actions of others will require more international partnerships. A consolidation of relations between the governments of India and New Zealand makes eminent sense in this context. While an FTA is a welcome development, it remains just one step toward what can be a much more broad-based and mutually-beneficial partnership.

Port of Hope

Port of Hope

By Vasabjit Banerjee

China evidently recognises the Calcutta Port System as an economic force multiplier for India’s economic power in the region. The Indian government has recently advanced several solutions, from modernisation to expansion of the port system. Yet, more needs to be done by the Indian government and private investors to strengthen the port system to ward off Chinese influence.

Securing Critical Minerals at Scale: Multilateral Solutions for Energy, Defense, and Semiconductor Supply Chains

Securing Critical Minerals at Scale: Multilateral Solutions for Energy, Defense, and Semiconductor Supply Chains

Background Paper No. 38

By Jeffrey D. Bean and Dhruva Jaishankar

The Structural and Political Factors of the U.S. Reset With the World

The Structural and Political Factors of the U.S. Reset With the World

By Dhruva Jaishankar

For countries around the world — whether allies, partners, or competitors of the United States — there are important and immediate questions of how much and to what degree they will accommodate, or hedge against, the United States’ new approach to the world.

Taiwan and India’s Submarine Production — Opportunities for Collaboration

Taiwan and India’s Submarine Production — Opportunities for Collaboration

By Benjamin Tkach and Vasabjit Banerjee

While India-Taiwan collaboration on submarine technology would represent a step change from pre-existing economic cooperation, improving domestic production capacity necessitates pursuing mutual gains wherever possible.

How Do Experts View the New Zealand-India FTA?

How Do Experts View the New Zealand-India FTA?

By Dhruva Jaishankar

For both India and New Zealand, their trade agreement represents, more than anything else, a risk mitigation strategy. Concerned about over-dependence on China and the United States as both producers and consumers — and the failure of multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization — New Delhi and Wellington have opted to bet on each other and bring a modicum of certainty to an uncertain world.

Congressional Testimony: The U.S.-India Strategic Partnership

BY DHRUVA JAISHANKAR

Chairman Huizenga, Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and Members of the Subcommittee: It is a privilege to appear before you today. I am grateful to House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) Chairman Brian Mast and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks for their invitation.

My name is Dhruva Jaishankar, and I am Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America), a public policy think tank based in Washington DC affiliated with the Observer Research Foundation in India. My father is the External Affairs Minister of India, the counterpart to the U.S. Secretary of State. However, I appear today in my capacity as a private Indian citizen. My testimony reflects my personal views as an international relations analyst, and not those of my employer or the Government of India.

I would like to highlight three points in today’s hearing:

  • The strengthening U.S.-India strategic partnership since 1998 has been premised on converging interests. These related to: (i) mutually-beneficial economic opportunities in both countries and (ii) strategic coordination, particularly in the Indo-Pacific amid China’s rise and growing assertiveness and, more recently, in stabilizing the Middle East.

  • The progress made in consolidating the U.S.-India partnership is currently at a political standstill, primarily due to differences over (i) trade and tariffs and (ii) renewed U.S. engagement with Pakistan’s military leadership. Additional differences involving Russia, regional strategies, and both countries’ domestic policies exist, but are manageable.

  • The present situation risks jeopardizing mutually-beneficial cooperation on (i) the ambitious bilateral agenda outlined by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi in February 2025 on trade, technology, energy, and defense cooperation and (ii) strategic cooperation between the two countries in the Quad, in the Middle East, and on global affairs: from the Western Hemisphere and Africa to AI and critical minerals.

Read the full testimony.

New Frontiers for India’s Defence Diplomacy

New Frontiers for India’s Defence Diplomacy

By Dhruva Jaishankar and Ammar Nainar

Once a quiet backstage function of the armed forces, defence diplomacy has emerged as one of India's sharpest tools of statecraft. From joint exercises and training missions to disaster relief and maritime surveillance, India's military now operates far beyond the battlefield: building trust, shaping partnerships, and projecting the country's strategic interests on a rapidly shifting global stage.

The New Eurasian Order: America Must Link its Atlantic and Pacific Strategies

The New Eurasian Order: America Must Link its Atlantic and Pacific Strategies

By Julianne Smith and Lindsey Ford

American allies are rapidly transforming their relationships whether Washington likes it or not; these networks can either serve or undermine U.S. interests depending on how Washington engages with them. If the United States fails to reset ties with Asian and European partners, it risks being left on the sidelines of a rapidly changing world order.

How to Rebuild the U.S.-India Relationship Through TRUST

How to Rebuild the U.S.-India Relationship Through TRUST

By Divyansh Kaushik and Lindsey Ford

The recent bilateral crisis has caused significant damage, but it has not destroyed the fundamental calculation that brought TRUST into being: the United States and India need each other to maintain democratic technological leadership against authoritarian competition. 

Transatlantic Rifts: An Indian Perspective

Transatlantic Rifts: An Indian Perspective

By Dhruva Jaishankar

A strong transatlantic bond that for almost eight decades had evolved into a highly integrated defense and economic system among the world’s leading industrial economies – institutionalized under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and G7 – now faces new stresses.

In Foreign Affairs: What Kind of Great Power Will India Be

In Foreign Affairs: What Kind of Great Power Will India Be

By Dhruva Jaishankar

In its diplomacy, India has reprioritized its near neighborhood, extending financial, developmental, and trading benefits to other South Asian countries and revitalizing more productive regional institutions.