Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi has served as Prime Minister of India since May 2014, leading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to outright majorities in 2014 and 2019 and a Coalition government after the 2024 general election. A former Chief Minister of Gujarat, he built his national profile on Hindu nationalist politics, economic liberalisation, and a doctrine of Indian Ocean primacy: India as the pre-eminent naval power from Oman to the Strait of Malacca.

Two concurrent crises in 2026 tested that doctrine simultaneously. On the western flank, Modi's government issued two formal protests to the United States after CENTCOM struck the MT Settebello on 11 June 2026, killing three Indian sailors; Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar phoned Marco Rubio on 13 June with what Delhi described as a strong protest, and Modi secured a bilateral with Donald Trump at the G7 in Evian-les-Bains on 17 June to raise the human cost directly. On the eastern flank, a cross-border confrontation with Pakistan over Kashmir escalated to air strikes in May 2026 before a US-brokered Ceasefire on 10 May; critics argued Modi's push to diplomatically isolate Pakistan had backfired when Islamabad re-emerged as a trusted American partner under Trump, raising questions about the limits of the strategic-autonomy doctrine.

The two crises together expose the central tension in Modi's Foreign Policy: Non-alignment demands restraint, yet Indian Ocean primacy requires assertiveness when foreign navies and powers act in India's claimed sphere. At the 8th consecutive G7 to which India was invited, Modi positioned himself as the voice of the Global South, pressing for reform of multilateral institutions while navigating the bilateral pressures of the US strategic partnership, trade negotiations, and H-1B Visa restrictions simultaneously.