New Delhi, March 9 -- Trade agreements are rarely confined to commerce. They frequently function as instruments through which larger geopolitical alignments are shaped and tested. The recently announced interim trade framework between the United States and India must therefore be viewed through a wider strategic lens. While the reduction of U.S. tariffs on Indian exports from punitive levels to 18 percent appears to offer immediate relief to exporters and stabilise market sentiment, the deeper question concerns the structural expectations embedded within the arrangement. When market access becomes implicitly linked to geopolitical choices, trade diplomacy begins to resemble strategic conditionality rather than purely economic negotiation....