Beyond trade deals to building a new architecture

In just a few days in early 2026, India signed two major trade agreements — the India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement, and a deal with the United States that lowered American tariffs on Indian goods. The EU deal was called the “mother of all deals”. The U.S. agreement was seen as a strategic reset. Both are real achievements.

But these deals also reveal a deeper problem: the system that allowed countries such as India to trade freely is breaking down. What you can buy and sell increasingly depends on politics, not just economics. No country can make everything it needs. India has great software engineers but needs advanced computer chips from Taiwan. It makes generic medicines but relies on China for the chemical ingredients. It has a huge market but needs technology and investment from others. For the past few decades, the global economy flowed smoothly — buy from whoever made things the best and cheapest. If someone refused to sell unfairly, international bodies would step in. The world operated on rules that countries mostly honoured. That is how India built its pharmaceutical industry and South Korea became a tech giant.