2025 proved to be year of shameful failures for India’s foreign policy
New Delhi: The year 2025 will be remembered as a year of failures and defeats in India’s foreign policy, as India has repeatedly faced diplomatic humiliation and embarrassment at the global level.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Indian newspaper “The Hindu” in a report has said that the expectations attached to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India could not become reality. The newspaper declared 2025 a year of broken promises due to the failure to meet expectations regarding the country’s foreign policy.
According to the newspaper, symbolic diplomacy, personal relationships and narrative creation could not be a substitute for real economic, military and diplomatic power.
The newspaper said India made promises not only to itself but also to its partners that it did not have the influence and strength to implement.
On relations with the US, the newspaper wrote that 2025 proved to be the most difficult year of this century for India, where a 25 percent tariff, additional restrictions on Russian oil and restrictions on H-1B visas made it clear that India’s partnership with Washington is conditional and self-serving.
According to The Hindu, India has been relegated to a limited role in the US National Security Strategy for 2025 compared to 2017. Similarly, despite all the high-level meetings with China and Russia, no concrete security progress could be made on the Line of Actual Control, while obstacles to investment also persisted and India was limited to a mere symbolic presence.
In the energy sector, the newspaper clarified that as a result of US pressure, India had to backtrack on its position on the issue of Russian oil. It called the Pahalgam false flag operation a serious security failure and admitted that Indian military operations could not receive global support at the diplomatic level after the Pahalgam attack. The silence on the losses of aircraft after the Indian operation also damaged India’s reputation. Similarly, the announcement of the Saudi-Pakistan bilateral defence agreement proved to be an additional blow to India.
According to The Hindu, Indian analysts are now considering Pakistan’s leadership as tough and capable of organizing, while the newspaper also admitted that India-Bangladesh relations have reached their most tense level ever.
The newspaper warned that India is moving away from the Vishwa Guru narrative and towards Vishwa Victim, and blaming others is becoming the biggest obstacle to reform and realistic policy-making.
According to experts, The Hindu’s report has exposed India’s weak diplomacy. India must understand that diplomacy based on show alone cannot achieve practical results. The newspaper’s admission of diplomatic failure confirms Pakistan’s position that India’s foreign policy has been based mostly on optics, not practical results.
According to experts, this analysis by The Hindu also points to the fact that India is no longer an indispensable strategic partner for the United States, which reinforces Pakistan’s position that India’s deterrence narrative has failed to convince on the global stage.
According to experts, the newspaper’s admission that some countries supported Pakistan’s military actions openly exposes India’s diplomatic failure, while the recognition of the capabilities of the Pakistani leadership negates the Indian claim that Pakistan is weak or isolated on the global stage.
Experts say that India, which has expressed concern over the atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh, must also condemn and prevent attacks on minorities in its own country.
