March 2, 2026 | My View | Santhosh Vishwamitra
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The Geopolitical Gravity of Modi - Article by Santhosh Vishwamitra
Let me be clear upfront — I am not writing this as a blind fan. I am writing this as someone who watches geopolitics closely, reads between the headlines, and calls things as they are. And right now, what I see is something I genuinely haven't seen in a long time in world politics: a leader who is winning, quietly and consistently, without firing a single bullet.
That leader is Narendra Modi.
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While the World Burns, Modi Is Signing Deals
Let's start with today — literally today, March 2, 2026.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney just wrapped up a state visit to India. He flew to Mumbai first, addressed Indian business leaders, then traveled to Delhi to meet Modi at Hyderabad House. He wants a comprehensive trade deal wrapped up by the end of this year. He wants to double bilateral trade to $70 billion by 2030.
Now here's what makes this remarkable. This is the same Canada that was in a diplomatic deep freeze with India just over two years ago. Former PM Justin Trudeau publicly accused India's government of involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil in 2023 — a declaration that caused a full-blown diplomatic collapse. Both countries expelled each other's diplomats. The relationship hit rock bottom.
Then Carney came in. And within months, he was inviting Modi to the G7 in Canada. Then they met at the G20. And now Carney is the one flying all the way to India — not the other way around — to pitch Canada as a reliable partner. India's high commissioner summed it up perfectly: the perception has shifted from Canada being "a difficult country" to "Canada is ready to do business with the world."
You don't need to read a political science textbook to understand what just happened. Modi held his ground, didn't apologize, didn't blink — and Canada came back to the table. On India's terms.
This is Pattern #1 of why I think Modi operates differently.
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The Trade Avalanche Nobody Is Talking About Enough
Let me walk you through what has happened in the last twelve months, because when you lay it all out together, it's genuinely staggering.
UK — The Biggest Deal Since Brexit
In May 2025, India and the UK concluded a Free Trade Agreement that British PM Keir Starmer called "the biggest and most economically significant trade deal the UK has made since leaving the EU." Modi signed it formally at Chequers in July 2025. Under this deal, 99% of Indian exports enter the UK market duty-free. Tariffs on British goods entering India — which averaged 15% — will drop to around 3%. The deal is projected to add £4.8 billion to the UK economy every year and boost bilateral trade by £25.5 billion by 2040. Starmer himself led the largest-ever UK government trade mission to India in October, bringing 125 CEOs, university heads, and cultural leaders with him. His quote? *"This is just the start."* When a G7 prime minister flies to you with 125 top executives in tow and calls your deal the best thing his country has done since Brexit — that's not just trade. That's influence.
France — A "Special Global Strategic Partnership"
On February 17, 2026 — just two weeks ago — Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron elevated India-France ties to a "Special Global Strategic Partnership." Macron flew to Mumbai for this. They inaugurated the India-France Year of Innovation 2026. They signed deals on defence co-production, nuclear energy (including Small Modular Reactors), AI collaboration, and aerospace. France has doubled its bilateral trade with India over the last decade. Macron called the partnership "key to our sovereignty and independence." Meanwhile, the broader India-EU FTA — which covers a market of two billion people and roughly 25% of global GDP — was announced on January 27, 2026. Modi called it "the mother of all deals." Von der Leyen flew to Delhi as Republic Day chief guest specifically to be there for this moment.
Israel — 17 Agreements in Two Days
Late February 2026. Modi visited Israel for a two-day state visit. Netanyahu called him "more than a friend, a brother." They signed 17 agreements covering trade, technology, cybersecurity, defence, and critical emerging sectors. India and Israel announced they're working toward a full Free Trade Agreement. India is already Israel's second-largest trading partner in Asia. Israel's economy minister had called Israel's defence relationship with India "one of the best in the world." Defence deals potentially worth $8–10 billion are on the table, covering advanced missile and air defence systems. This is a relationship that barely existed before Modi became PM in 2014 — India never had a prime ministerial visit to Israel until Modi went in 2017. He's built this from the ground up.
Canada — Fresh Off the Press
And then today. Canada, as described above. Coming back, hat in hand, asking for a trade deal.
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The China Move: Talking to Your Enemy Without Weakness
This one deserves its own section because it takes real strategic nerve.
India and China fought a deadly border clash in 2020. Twenty Indian soldiers died in hand-to-hand combat in the Galwan Valley. Relations collapsed. Direct flights were cancelled. Visas were restricted. The two countries were in a deep freeze.
In 2024, Modi met Xi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia — the first formal leaders' engagement in five years. Then in August 2025, Modi flew to Tianjin, China, for the SCO summit. His first visit to China in seven years. He met Xi face to face and told him: "The interests of 2.8 billion people in both our countries are tied to our cooperation." Direct flights resumed in October 2025. Visa restrictions were eased. Border trade mechanisms are being reopened.
Here's the context that makes this even more impressive: the US had just slapped 50% tariffs on Indian goods in August 2025 — punishing India for buying Russian oil. Within days, Modi is sitting with Xi in Tianjin, talking about multipolarity and cooperation. He wasn't running toward China out of desperation. He was recalibrating, coolly, sending a message to Washington that India has options. Beijing got the message. Washington got the message. And Modi didn't have to say anything dramatic. He just acted.
That's strategic communication without words.
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My Actual View: What Makes Him Different
I've watched other current world leaders closely. Here's what I genuinely observe.
Most leaders today are reactive. They respond to events. They manage crises. They fight fires. Xi Jinping is playing a long game but is largely confined to a bloc-building approach. Trump is unpredictable and transactional — powerful, yes, but every deal he makes creates enemies while he makes it. Macron has ambition but limited leverage. The UK, Canada, Germany — they're all scrambling to adapt to a world Trump has upended.
Modi is different because he plays multiple tables simultaneously, without tying himself to any one of them.
He has a defence partnership with Russia (buying oil, keeping S-400s) while maintaining ties with the West. He talks to China without abandoning his border claims. He stands with Israel while also voting in the UN on Palestinian rights. He refused to simply capitulate to Trump's tariffs — not in the way Trudeau tried and failed, not in the way smaller nations just accepted their lot. India is still negotiating, still holding leverage.
The phrase his foreign policy team uses is "strategic autonomy." But from the outside, it looks less like a doctrine and more like instinct — the instinct of someone who genuinely understands that the 21st century belongs to those who don't choose sides, but instead make themselves indispensable to every side.
And that's exactly what Modi has made India: indispensable. The UK needs India. Canada needs India. France needs India. Israel needs India. Even China needs India — their bilateral trade hit $138 billion in 2024 even during the freeze. Every major power is flying their leaders to New Delhi because India under Modi has become too big, too fast-growing, and too strategically important to ignore or antagonize.
That's not luck. That's a decade of consistent positioning.
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The One Thing His Critics Get Wrong
I'll be fair. There are legitimate criticisms of Modi, domestically. Those conversations matter and shouldn't be brushed aside. But when it comes to foreign policy, even his harshest critics struggle to argue with the results. Countries that tried to isolate or lecture India ended up reversing course and coming to the negotiating table.
The world doesn't reward moral posturing. It rewards leverage. And right now, India has more of it than at any point in its post-Independence history.
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The Bigger Picture
Here's what I think is actually happening, zoomed out.
The world is fracturing into a multipolar order. The old American-dominated system is cracking. China is rising but facing its own contradictions. Europe is searching for relevance. Russia is isolated. Middle powers — India, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey — are becoming the real swing votes in global politics.
Modi understood this shift earlier than most. He didn't wait for the world to invite India to the table. He positioned India as the table itself.
Not through war. Not through alliances of convenience. But through trade, technology, and the sheer weight of being a 1.4-billion-person economy growing at 6-7% a year, with a young workforce, a digital payments revolution, and a space programme that can land on the Moon for less than it costs Hollywood to make a sci-fi film.
No world leader right now wants to be on the wrong side of that story. And Modi — whatever you think of him politically — knows it. And he's using it.
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*That's my read. I could be wrong. But the pattern speaks for itself.*
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🔗 Sources:
- Canada-India trade reset: [CBC News](
cbc news)
- India-France Special Strategic Partnership: [DD News](
news on air)
- India-EU FTA: [CNBC](
cnbc)
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For my non-political content on web development & writing, visit my main blog:
— Santhosh Vishwamitra ✍️
[Founder, SVM Labs]
✍️ Inside Stories – Where Global Politics Meets Perspective
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