India, Nov. 19 -- As the world's economic and geopolitical centre of gravity continues to shift, India faces a new kind of pressure in its negotiations with the United States-a pressure that risks undermining decades of India's diplomatic principle of strategic autonomy. At the heart of this challenge are the so-called 'poison pill' clauses now appearing in American trade agreements-provisions that demand exclusive allegiances and threaten India's longstanding ties with both Russia and China.

Recent US trade deals with Asian partners have begun including explicit "termination clauses" that allow Washington to revoke agreements should a partner State forge closer ties with a "rival" nation. What may appear to be a technical trade provisio...