Introduction
The tenth edition of the Raisina Dialogue (RD), which was first launched in March, 2016 was held on 17th-19th March, 2025 in New Delhi. The name “Raisina’’ comes from the Raisina Hill, a geographical elevation in New Delhi which is the seat of the Government of India.
The Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the international community. Every year, leaders in politics, business, media, and civil society converge in New Delhi to discuss the state of the world and explore opportunities for cooperation on a wide range of contemporary matters.
The Dialogue is structured as a multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral discussion, involving heads of state, cabinet ministers and local government officials, who are joined by thought leaders from the private sector, media and academia. Launched by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and top think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the forum is designed on the lines of the Shangrila Dialogue held annually in Singapore, and the Munich Security Conference held in Munich, Germany.
The 10th Dialogue witnessed participation of a range of representatives including the Prime Minister of New Zealand, several Ministers, former Heads of State and Heads of Government, Military Commanders, Captains of Industry, Technology Leaders, Academics, Journalists, Scholars on Strategic Affairs, Experts from leading Think Tanks, and Youth.
The theme of the 2025 edition was “Kālachakra – People, Peace and Planet”. It emphasized the constant change taking place, signified by the wheel of time and its circular nature. Over the course of three days, decision makers and thought leaders of the world engaged each other across conversations in various formats, over six thematic pillars dealing with Global Politics, Climate Change, Digital Planet, Trade, Development and Peace.
The Evolution Thus Far
The underlying motivation of the RD was that in a world undergoing rapid changes, constant disruptions, shifting alliances, rising risks of conflict and a new world order struggling to emerge, Dialogue is the only way forward. The Raisina Dialogue provides a platform to thought leaders and policy makers to engage in Conversations through this Premier Global Summit.
The launch of the Dialogue was inspired by the desire to provide a Platform and opportunity to India, accounting for one-sixth of the global humanity and a rising political, economic and military power, to share its views and thoughts with the world on the emerging challenges and opportunities in the world. Till the advent of the Raisina Dialogue, most prominent and prestigious Strategic Dialogues and Think Tank Conclaves around the world were designed and dominated by Western groups and Agencies. Agendas were written by them, they decided who would speak at these gatherings, what issues would be discussed etc. Indian participants, like much of the Global South, were performers in a global gladiatorial arena without a significant independent agency of their own to speak on issues of interest and relevance to them.
This was sought to be changed through the Raisina Dialogue. It was designed so that interests, concerns, challenges and potential of India and the Global South could be deliberated upon upfront and form the pivot of discussions. In addition, ambitions and aspirations of India and the developing world could be promoted through these debates. Moreover, RD also provides a platform to argue, discuss, dispute, disagree to try and discover common ground amongst contending parties on some of the major political, security and economic challenges confronting the world like the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the growing threat of nuclear proliferation, Russia-US relations, US-China tensions and the most fractious and divisive of them all, the rapidly crumbling US-EU partnership. At a time when the anxiety levels in the world are high, people are hesitant to speak, when conversations are seen to be less important in the face of unilateral decisions, RD provides a platform to have honest debates with the objective of bridging divides. The growth in outreach as well as the level of participants and the quality of debates in the RD over the years is an assertion by India to claim its rightful place in the comity of nations.
Over the preceding ten years the Dialogue has truly come of age. If there were just 100 participants in 2016, the number has grown to 4,100 (out of which 2,000 were foreign participants) in 2025. As against 10 intense Sessions in 2016, the number was 125 in 2025. In comparison to just 35 countries participating in 2016, the number has ballooned to 131 countries in the 10th Dialogue.
While the Inaugural edition of the Dialogue in 2016 was attended by the then Indian EAM Mrs Sushma Swaraj and some former Heads of State/Government from South Asia, the subsequent editions were attended by incumbent Heads of State/Government, Foreign Ministers, former Heads of State/Government and senior military commanders, captains of industry, academics etc. While the 2017 Edition was Addressed by the former PM of Canada Stephen Harper, the Dialogues from 2018 onwards were Addressed by incumbent Heads of State/Government i.e. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg in 2019, Australian PM Scott Morrison was scheduled to Speak in 2020 but had to cancel at the last minute due to Australian bushfires (Instead Australian FM Marisa Payne delivered the Inaugural Address), Danish PM Mette Frederiksen and Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 2021 (the Dialogue in 2021 was held in virtual format on account of the raging Covid-19 Pandemic), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2022, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni in 2023, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis in 2024, and New Zealand PM Christppher Luxon in the 10th edition in 2025. As would be observed, the Dialogue was convened every year, even in 2020/’21 when the world was paralysed by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic!
PM Narendra Modi has demonstrated the power of listening through his participation in the RDs. He participated in all RDs since 2017 but spoke at the Inaugural Session of only the first one in 2017, setting a personal example about the importance of focussing, concentrating, absorbing and understanding.
The Tenth Raisina Dialogue, March, 2025
The event was attended by foreign ministers of more than 20 countries, including Ukraine, the Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Peru, Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Hungary, Ghana and others. 11 of them were from European countries with a large ministerial contingent from Central and Eastern Europe. This enabled a new diplomatic outreach for the government that is seeking trade agreements and investment ties with this part of Europe that is oft-overlooked but competitive, economically.
The fallout of trade and security policies of the Donald Trump administration in the US, the reshaping of the global order and the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia dominated this year’s edition of the Raisina Dialogue. The event served as a vital platform for India to assert its global standing, discuss pivotal issues, and forge diplomatic ties with regions that hold economic potential.
In his wide-ranging, bold and inspiring Keynote Address, the Prime Minister of New Zealand Christopher Luxon warmly congratulated PM Modi and India for the remarkable success achieved in economic, technological and scientific fields and expressed his determination to substantially enhance partnership with India in political, security, defence and technological areas of cooperation. Speaking about the rapid changes taking place globally, he declared that Unipolarity is transitioning to Multipolarity, Free Trade to Protectionism, Multilateralism to Unilateralism, Globalization to Hyper-Nationalism, Openness to Xenophobia, and Optimism to Anxiety. He asserted that some major geo-strategic risks in the evolving situation to both growth and prosperity included the system of Rules giving way to Power, the change of focus from Economics to Security, and from Efficiency to Resilience. He maintained that countries of the Indo-Pacific like India and New Zealand should collaborate to ensure that all countries were free to make their decisions without any interference from any outside country, work together with the Institutions of the Indo-Pacific like the ASEAN, the Quad, the East Asia Summit etc. to maintain peace and security, and ensure that rules pertaining to territorial integrity, freedom of navigation and laws of war erc. ate respected and followed.
In response to a question on the major Takeaways from the Conclave, EAM Dr Jaishankar said that more than in any other similar gathering, he could discern in the statements and actions of all participants that they sensed that a huge all-encompassing change was afoot in the world. The world is in the midst of renegotiating everything. The Global Order is changing for real. The second palpable feeling was that technology of Artificial Intelligence will impact the world in a manner that technology had never ever done in the past. The third aspect that stood out as mentioned by EAM was the huge diversity in interests and positions of the different countries and participants which would have to be fully taken on board while moving forward.
Conclusion
In the past 10 years, the Raisina Dialogue has grown in stature and profile to emerge as a leading global conference on international affairs. It is no coincidence that the dialogue started shortly after the Narendra Modi–led government took office, since a major tenet of his foreign policy is to enhance India’s diplomatic influence and engagement.
Through this forum, India is making clear its desire not only to be part of the global conversation, but to shape it, to plan ahead and learn the right lessons from the challenges of the past 20 years. India seeks to be a stabilising, rather than a disruptive emerging power. India’s foreign policy today aims to achieve a focus on key challenges and a broad engagement with many parties, and to manage global contradictions.
Three individuals who have stayed engaged in shepherding the Conclave right from its inception in 2016 are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EAM Dr S Jaishankar, and ORF President Samir Saran. Credit for launching the Forum and bringing it to this level of prominence and prestige goes principally to these three visionaries.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar is Executive Council Member, Mahohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses; President, Institute of Global Studies; Distinguished Fellow, Ananta Aspen Centre, and former Ambassdor of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia.
