6 min readMay 23, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: May 23, 2026 at 06:15 AM ISTAs United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio begins an important visit, India needs to confront hard truths about the Indo-US relationship. Of late, India, like much of the world, gives the striking impression of a deer being caught in the headlights. The US is not just untrustworthy, it is currently the biggest wrecking ball to hit global stability. But dependence on China carries its own discomfort. There are no effective alternative coalitions yet to counteract these powers. Many of India’s wounds, however, are self-inflicted. India will have to wean itself away from its own delusions.First, any dealings with the US have to account for not just bilateral considerations or worries about China, but the entire global context. Indian foreign policy has been hugely diminished because we now operate on the assumption that we should focus on our interests, narrowly understood, even if the world be damned. India is not uniquely at fault. But the idea that bilateral wins or very short-term tactical considerations alone can create the space for India’s rise is myopic. Given India’s history, it is absolutely astonishing that it is the one country that, in the international system is, for all practical purposes, condoning not one but two imperial projects. India was tepid in its defence of international law when Russia invaded Ukraine. Its near silence, and the open and practical embrace of Israel and the US’s strategic objectives on Iran, is damning. India talks the language of civilisation, sovereignty and multipolarity, but is increasingly comfortable with imperial coercion. But these imperial projects directly harm India’s material interests as well. As we have belatedly acknowledged, the war in Iran will do more material damage to our economy than any adversary could. We have to return to thinking that what is good for the world will, in the long run, be good for us as well. This requires recognising the US, in the current form, for what it is — an imperial power unleashing a new and dangerous nihilism in the world order. It’s not a saviour, it is a threat.AdvertisementIt is often said that the US cannot deal with countries that are not allies, while India has tried to maintain strategic autonomy. But the present moment far supersedes this framing in two ways. The first is that the US betrays its allies and reduces them to a state of abject dependence. But India’s case is peculiar. Over the last couple of years, it has become entirely apparent that in India, the US has managed to achieve something more than an alliance. In superficial terms, India exercises the rituals of strategic autonomy. It purchases Russian oil, it is trying to achieve trade diversification, and it will even cast an occasional inconvenient vote at multilateral forums.Yet beyond these gestures, something deeper has shifted. Significant sections of India’s foreign policy establishment, if not public opinion, have internalised the assumption that India’s rise should be irrevocably tied to American power. This internalisation matters more than formal alliances. We can see this transformation most clearly in the framing of public discourse. It is astonishing, for instance, how quickly responsibility for instability in the Strait of Hormuz is displaced onto Iran alone, while the fact that the strait is closed due to the US is underplayed. Whatever one thinks of Iran’s regime, India’s open embrace of Israel, the US, and the UAE, in a war with extraordinary second and third-order effects for global order, reflects this ideological adaptation.Nowhere is this blindness more visible than on the issue of Pakistan. It should always have been obvious that the US could never view Pakistan solely through Indian eyes. Our illusion was exposed repeatedly, especially in the political aftermath of Operation Sindoor. The US positioned itself as the indispensable external guarantor of subcontinental stability. India may reject the language of mediation publicly. But America rarely relinquishes the role of regional arbiter, and Pakistan has always been important to its imperial interests. Our interests will not align with America in the Subcontinent, so we have to find a way of dealing with it on our own terms. Another illusion that has been shattered is the idea that India will be indispensable to US strategy in Asia; the truth is, it is quite dispensable.AdvertisementA deepening of the economic relationship with the US would be beneficial. However, the punitive tariffs imposed on India were not just about industrial policy, but about showing India its place. The US Supreme Court invalidated President Donald Trump’s tariffs, giving India a reprieve. But we should not be under any illusion about how extractive the US intends to be, and will remain so beyond Trump. Again, India could benefit from a deeper alignment with the US’s technology. But India should be well aware of the hubris the US brings to the table. It is convinced that India is far behind in technology and that China is not a serious technology option for India. So, it will come begging to the table. There is no easy short-term answer to this conundrum. But we have to resist the defeatism of the pro-America lobby in this regime, which throws in the towel whenever America is in question. It is also ironic that the US will measure success in this trip by how much Indian investment can get to the United States. Again, our political economy and the strategies of the Ambani and Adani groups make us vulnerable. At their best, India and the US’s affinity still lay in the fact that both aspired to be open and free societies. What ties the regimes now is a comfort with evil and transactionalism. But even in this moment of darkness, India needs to confront its own abjectness and give up its delusions about America and itself. Our interests are not as easily aligned. Let us start by confronting this truth.The writer is contributing editor, The Indian Express