India’s Middle East Policy: Strategic Autonomy, Multi-Alignment, or Selective Alignment?

Abstract

India’s foreign policy has seen an ideological shift from non-alignment and anti-colonial solidarity to a pragmatic, national interest-based approach which is now described as “Multi-Alignment. This article analyses whether India’s proclaimed neutral and de-hyphenated stance is a genuine display of an independent and autonomous sovereignty specially in relation with Iran, Israel, United States. This article uses a mixed- method of combining textual analysis with statistical data from trade, diplomatic, military partnership, energy security, defence cooperation, and United Nations voting record commencing from 2010 to 2025. The conclusion shows that while India’s official stance continues to rhetorically campaign Palestinian statehood, sovereignty, non-interference due to its ideological posture, yet its practical actions show selective partnerships based on the economical, strategical and geopolitical reasons. To understand the paradox of Indias’s Foreign policy, where it remains formally independent but practically constrained, the article uses the framework of the “bounded strategic autonomy”. India’s choices are restricted by its ongoing requirement to import military hardware, to navigate unequal power dynamics of contemporary world and to balance against China’s geopolitical assertiveness at global forums. This article contributes to the contemporary deliberations about how developing nations conduct their foreign affairs and demonstrate the dynamics of neutrality in multilateral world. Keywords : Foreign Policy, India, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Multi-alignment, Sovereignty, Strategic Autonomy, United States.