Xi, Putin in Delhi: Why Modi’s Global Rise Is Giving Washington Something to Worry About
For PM Modi, it is a powerful moment to project India not as a junior partner of any great power, but as a global power in its own right
It could be a defining moment for India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Xi Jinping Returns to India After Seven Years: Modi’s Global Leadership Moment
The presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in India has created a striking diplomatic picture in New Delhi – one that reinforces Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image as a leader capable of engaging simultaneously with competing centres of global power.
With India hosting the BRICS Summit, Modi is at the centre of a gathering that brings together two countries with which Washington has increasingly difficult relations. Putin remains a central adversary of the United States, while the US-China rivalry continues to shape global geopolitics. Yet both leaders are travelling to India and sitting across the table from Modi.
That is precisely where the significance of the summit lies.
Washington has reasons to watch closely
For the United States, India is an increasingly important strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific and a key counterweight to China’s influence. Washington has invested heavily in the India-US relationship through defence cooperation, technology partnerships, critical supply chains and the Quad.
But Modi’s foreign policy has consistently resisted the idea that India’s strategic choices should be dictated by Washington.
India continues to maintain a major relationship with Russia, including in energy and defence, while simultaneously expanding cooperation with the United States. At the same time, New Delhi is working to stabilise relations with Beijing after years of military and diplomatic tensions.
The arrival of Putin and Xi in Delhi therefore sends a message that Washington cannot ignore: India intends to remain a partner of the United States without becoming an ally that automatically follows the American line.
Modi’s diplomatic balancing act
The optics are particularly powerful.
Putin’s presence underlines the continuing importance of the India-Russia relationship. Xi’s visit signals an effort to manage competition with China while keeping channels of communication open. And the fact that both leaders are engaging with Modi in New Delhi places India — rather than either Washington, Moscow or Beijing — at the centre of the diplomatic conversation.
For Modi, this strengthens the political narrative that India has emerged as an independent global power whose relationships cannot be reduced to a single geopolitical camp.
The message is also relevant to India’s relationship with Washington. The US may regard India as an essential strategic partner, but New Delhi is demonstrating that its partnership with Washington does not prevent it from conducting business with Moscow or diplomacy with Beijing.
America’s dilemma
This creates a complicated calculation for the United States.
Washington wants India closer as the strategic competition with China intensifies. But the more influential India becomes, the more difficult it is for the US to expect New Delhi to make foreign-policy choices solely through an American lens.
Modi’s ability to host Xi and Putin while maintaining India’s expanding engagement with the United States effectively showcases the concept of strategic autonomy.
India is not choosing between America, Russia and China.
It is attempting to ensure that America, Russia and China all have reasons to engage with India.
That may ultimately be the most powerful demonstration of India’s changing position in the world.
A bigger message from Delhi
The BRICS gathering consequently becomes more than another multilateral summit. It provides a visual representation of India’s growing diplomatic weight.
Putin and Xi coming to India does not, by itself, prove that either country has moved closer to India’s strategic position. Nor does it mean that Washington is losing India.
But it does demonstrate something increasingly difficult to overlook: India has acquired enough geopolitical importance for the world’s major powers to compete for its attention while Modi seeks to preserve room to manoeuvre among them.
For the American establishment, that is both an opportunity and a challenge.
For Modi, it is a powerful moment to project India not as a junior partner of any great power, but as a global power in its own right.
