PM Modi’s Trump hedge: India building new global partnerships, one deal at a time, says NYT

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has significantly stepped up his diplomatic outreach over the past year, travelling extensively to strengthen existing partnerships and forge new ones as India seeks to navigate growing global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, a New York Times report said.

PM Modi has visited at least 20 countries since August 2025, with several of his engagements focused on securing concrete economic and strategic outcomes, the report said. The outreach comes as India seeks to diversify its partnerships and reduce its exposure to disruptions stemming from US trade policies unleashed by President Trump, as well as wider geopolitical tensions.

The report comes amid PM Modi’s visit to Kyrgyzstan for the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. During the SCO meeting today, PM Modi is expected to hold bilateral discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines. Modi might also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the summit.

‘Delivered tangible economic gains for India’

The report notes that Modi’s recent foreign engagements have also delivered tangible economic gains for India, including submarine technology cooperation with Germany, easier access to student visas in France and reduced duties on Scotch whisky under the India-UK trade agreement.

“We want to build better ties with the rest of the world as the size of our economy grows,” Priyam Gandhi-Mody told New York Times. Mody is an executive director of the Future Economic Cooperation Council, an initiative of the government of Maharashtra, a western Indian state.

She describes India’s approach as “plurilateral” pursuing “smaller goals, more targeted goals and a smaller set of countries, until the time that goal is achieved.”

The report also notes that many so-called middle powers, including France and Canada, have been “kneecapped by the same forces India faces, making them more amenable to Modi’s overtures.” Some, the report said, are seeking him out to meet their own strategic needs and to get access to the world’s fastest-growing large economy.

The NYT report says that India’s recalibrated approach to foreign policy made its debut about a year ago when the Trump administration announced 25 per cent global tariffs. “The Trump administration began calling India out for its protectionist economy, and last August Mr. Trump slapped India with an additional 25 percent tariff for buying Russian oil, saying the purchases were helping finance its war in Ukraine,” the report reads.

The report notes that the US President and Modi shared a personal relationship during Trump’s first term. But, it notes, New Delhi’s mood soured after Trump claimed repeatedly that he played a role in ending a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025.

“India has since rushed to find new partners to minimize the economic hit, as the United States was its largest single export market, as well as to strengthen relationships with countries like Japan and Australia that want to contain China in the Indo-Pacific region. The Iran war has made India’s mission only more urgent: With 80 percent of its crude oil imports coming through the Strait of Hormuz, it has been forced to find other transport routes,” it said.

$381.8 billion FDI till 2025: Govt

Nearly ₹550 crore has been spent on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's overseas visits since 2021, Union government said in a reply to Parliament during the recently concluded Monsoon Session.

Of this, ₹180 crore was incurred for PM Modi's 2025 visit to 23 countries, including the US, the UK, France, China and Japan, according to government data.

So far in 2026, the expenditure of PM Modi's foreign visits has reached over ₹74.58 crore, Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita informed the Rajya Sabha.

This doesn’t include PM Modi’s recent visit to Central Asian countries.

The number of MoUs signed during the prime minister's foreign visits since July 2021 stood at 316, according to the reply.

In his 35-page response, the minister also shared country-wise details of MoUs signed during these visits in a separate annexure, adding that the “total FDI received during April 2021-December 2025 period was $381.8 billion”.

Since December, Modi has visited 18 countries, while leaders of 13 countries have visited India. The NYT report lists specific agreements during these trips:

• India and France developed an especially close partnership, centered on artificial intelligence and governance, and on doubling bilateral trade within the next five years.
• PM Modi and Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, reaffirmed Norway’s commitment to creating one million jobs in India under an agreement India signed in October with the European Free Trade Association.
• President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea promised investment in India and shipbuilding assistance. India aims to become one of the world’s top five shipbuilders by 2047.
• PM Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit New Zealand in four decades. The meeting focused on maritime security, building on a defense cooperation agreement signed last year, and doubling bilateral trade.
• India signed a major free trade agreement with the European Union, the world’s largest economic bloc, in January. Roughly two decades of trade negotiations had been sped up by the newly upended world order.

The NYT report says that India’s priorities can be grouped into defence technology, regional security, energy imports, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence categories.

“Many of the pacts underscore India’s need for support to create manufacturing jobs and technology to drive its growth, analysts said. But India is also working with countries to build infrastructure and find new buyers for its pharmaceuticals, as the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs. Unlike the diffuse nature of many previous meetings with leaders, the recent partnerships are far more focused, outlining specific goals, targets and numbers,” the report reads

India’s deal with the EU marked a move away from India’s longstanding policy of protectionism, the report notes. India agreed to make concessions, including slashing tariffs on European cars and wine, among other products. In 2025, India also struck a deal with the United Kingdom, where the latter reduced tariffs on garments, and the former slashed duties on alcohol, the report noted,

The India-U S relationship is in “flux” and lacks “strategic focus” at the moment, Chietigj Bajpayee, a South Asia expert at Chatham House, a London-based think tank told NYT

“India is back to pursuing a strategy where it balances and manages its relationships with both smaller countries, middle powers like Canada and Japan, and the global powers, U.S. and China,” he said.

And, NYT noted, PM Modi is not one to shy away from advertising personal chemistry. During a meeting with Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, for example, Modi presented her with a bag of Melody toffee, a popular Indian candy.

“That very day, shares of an unrelated company with a name similar to the candy maker that produces Melody shot up on the Indian stock market,” the NYT report reads.