| Abstract: | India’s strategic engagement with the Indo-Pacific has acquired increasing significance amid changes in the regional distribution of power and the intensification of great-power competition. The rise of China, the continuing strategic presence of the United States, and the emergence of flexible regional arrangements have created a complex environment in which India must pursue security and economic interests without becoming strategically dependent on any single major power. This paper examines how India seeks to preserve strategic autonomy while deepening strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. It asks whether India’s growing engagement with the United States, Japan, Australia, ASEAN, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) represents a departure from strategic autonomy or a transformation of the way autonomy is practised. Drawing on qualitative analysis of scholarly literature, Indian foreign-policy documents, official statements, and policy material, the paper places India’s contemporary strategy in dialogue with the concepts of hedging, balancing, multiple alignment, and minilateralism. It argues that these approaches capture important dimensions of Indian behaviour but do not, individually, explain the broader logic of India’s foreign policy. The paper advances the argument that India’s strategic autonomy is evolving from a principle of strategic distance into a practice of strategic capacity-building through diversified partnerships, selective. |
| Keywords: | India, strategic autonomy, Indo-Pacific, great-power competition, China, United States, Quad, minilateralism |
