New Delhi, May 21 -- India's evolving trade relationship with China, the United States, the European Union and Russia offers a revealing window into the deeper structure of the South Asian economy. The Gulf region, meanwhile, has increasingly posed challenges for the energy security of South Asia.

At first glance, the numbers from FY 2025-26 appear straightforward: India runs a massive trade deficit with China, enjoys a surplus with the United States, maintains a more balanced and diversified relationship with Europe, and records a trade deficit with Russia. Yet beneath these figures lies a much larger story about industrialisation, global supply chains, regional asymmetries and the changing geography of world production.

The pattern is...