India’s commerce minister met with China’s counterpart at the WTO this week — the first formal trade talks between the two countries since India withdrew from RCEP in 2019. India’s trade deficit with China has surpassed $100 billion for the first time.
Simultaneously, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister met with Prime Minister Modi to discuss energy and fertilizer cooperation. India is locking in Russian supplies as the Iran war disrupts its normal sources from Saudi Arabia and Oman.
The world’s most populous country is building parallel trade relationships with both China and Russia during a Western-led war in the Middle East. This is the multipolar world order being assembled in real time.
Western media is not covering this because it contradicts the narrative that Russia is isolated and that the global order is dividing neatly into democracies versus autocracies. India is the largest democracy on earth, and it is trading enthusiastically with both of the countries the West identifies as its primary adversaries.
The BRICS summit India will host in September will formalize this positioning. India is not choosing sides. It is choosing India — trading with everyone, aligned with no one, and accumulating leverage in every direction.
The question is not whether the multipolar order is emerging. It is whether Western policymakers understand that it has already arrived.
