New Delhi, May 12 -- When United States President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15, the world will parse every signal on tariffs, Taiwan and trade. In New Delhi, however, the focus will be narrower and more unsettling: whether the world's two most powerful countries are moving toward a stabilisation of ties that leaves India strategically adrift.

India-United States relations have visibly cooled over the past year. Trump has repeatedly derided India's trade policies and economic model, while the personal warmth that once defined the Narendra Modi-Trump equation has faded into evident distance.

At the same time, Pakistan has quietly regained diplomatic relevance. Islamabad's reported facilitatio...