India, Mexico And A Missed Opportunity We Must Not Repeat

India has matured as a diplomatic player in the last decade. We have handled ties with the US, Russia, Europe, and even the Gulf with calculated realism. But even amidst this growing strategic sharpness, we’ve missed looking west of the Atlantic, where a quiet opportunity lies – Mexico.

At a time when the United States is reworking its supply chains and seeking alternatives to China, India could have stepped in with innovation. Mexico, a key pillar in the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) trade bloc, is geographically positioned to serve American markets efficiently.

If India had invested in Mexico’s industrial base, co-developed pharmaceutical or auto corridors, and plugged into the North American grid, it would have secured not just economic returns but also strategic proximity in America’s near backyard. We did not. There is no formal trilateral framework that includes India alongside the US and Mexico. Despite shared history through NAM, increasing trade, and some recent clean energy partnerships, the triangle remains unbuilt. Whether due to an Indo-Pacific fixation or bureaucratic bandwidth, this silence is loud.

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It is not a failure. But it is a missed lever. If tomorrow America reverts to its old ambiguity on Pakistan, or if China spreads its influence into Latin America more aggressively, we may wish we
had more depth in Mexico.

India can and must forge strategic understanding with Mexico on pharma, semiconductors, clean energy, and logistics. Even a modest trilateral forum, focused on shared infrastructure, would
open doors we are not even looking at today.

India has the experience, credibility, and scale to co-lead such platforms. What it now needs is strategic curiosity, to venture beyond the obvious, and engage where opportunity still sleeps.
Let this not be another silence we regret twenty years later.

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Author Ashutosh Jha writes on geopolitics, Indian diplomacy, and strategic assumptions