"Trade agreements are becoming tools of geopolitical leverage." Examine with reference to India's recent FTA negotiations.

Under WTO rules, free trade agreements are a permitted exception to non-discrimination, meant to deepen market access [2]. More and more, they are also used to win non-trade concessions. India's talks with the U.S. and the EU, running side by side, show both that pressure and India's ability to resist it.

How trade deals become geopolitical levers

• Linking non-trade issues: energy sourcing has entered trade diplomacy. India's Russian oil imports came up around its FTA talks with the EU [1].
• Asymmetric bargaining: large developed markets offer access in return for deeper tariff cuts, opening of sensitive sectors and closer policy alignment.
• Strategic alignment: deals with like-minded partners also serve as tools for supply-chain resilience and bloc-building, not just tariff reduction.

India's response in recent negotiations

• Holding red lines: the Finance Minister said the India–U.S. talks have reached a "plateau". She added that more demands or concessions are now "very difficult" [1]. Saying this publicly sets the other side's expectations.
• Keeping energy separate from trade: she said Russian oil imports were not a condition in the India–EU talks [1]. This reflects strategic autonomy.
• Protecting policy space: agriculture, dairy and MSMEs remain protected. India prefers a narrower deal to a lopsided one.
• Diversifying partners: the Department of Commerce is negotiating with several partners at once, including the EU [3]. This reduces dependence on any single market.

Limits of the "leverage" thesis

• Economics still drives most of the bargaining: tariffs, rules of origin and services access.
• Leverage works both ways. India's large market gives it bargaining power of its own.
• WTO disciplines under GATT Article XXIV still constrain what FTAs can contain [2].

Way forward

• Bring in safeguard clauses and phased tariff cuts for vulnerable sectors.
• Hold structured stakeholder consultations and brief Parliament, since it passes implementing laws under Article 253.
• Diversify the crude import basket so energy choices cannot be used as bargaining chips.

Trade agreements now carry a clear geopolitical edge, but recent negotiations show this is a pressure India can manage. If India grounds its talks in strategic autonomy, firm red lines and several partners at once, these agreements can serve its development goals and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) without limiting its foreign-policy choices.