Raisina Dialogue 2026 Opens in New Delhi

Politicians, academics, policy experts and journalists from more than 130 countries, they're all here tonight at Delhi's plush Taj Palace Hotel. Many having rerouted flights and rescheduled plans disrupted by the conflict in Iran.

Samir Saran, president of the Observer Research Foundation which organises the dialogue, acknowledged the chaos with good humour. "The last five days of my life were that of a travel agent," he told the audience, thanking those who had "travelled through unfamiliar routes, determined to meet in New Delhi as a collective to discuss and debate issues that should matter most to all of us."

Samir Saran is the President of the Observer Research Foundation , India's premier think tank/ Image AMC

Earlier, he had paused to acknowledge the human cost of conflicts raging beyond the conference hall. "We must spare a moment for all those who are in conflict zones in West Asia and elsewhere," he said. "May peace prevail. May shanti prevail."

Raisina's theme this year is Saṃskāra: Assertion, Accommodation, Advancement — which draws on the Sanskrit concept of inheritance of identity and patterns of habit which shape an individuals destiny.

Samir Saran described it as not something to be easily trivialised as a cultural artifact, but more "the code that runs a civilization."

Stubb Steals the Room

The evening's keynote was delivered by Finnish President Alexander Stubb, fresh from a day of meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He noted that after three hours alongside Modi, "we got to be such good friends that I feel I can say this — for me it was an empowering moment, because today we stood there together representing almost 1.5 billion people." The audience laughed. "I'm sorry," he added, "the speech is going to go only downhill from here."

In a wide-ranging address, Stubb went on to warn that humanity makes three habitual errors when confronting global crises: over-rationalising the past, over-dramatising the present, and as a result, underestimating the future.

Finnish president Alexander Stubb addresses the Raisina audience/ image Finn Govt

He was blunt about the state of the world order, criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as "a blatant violation of international law" with an outcome that will have consequences far beyond Europe.

He went on the quote the Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's now-famous line — that Europe had to "grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems, but the world's problems are not Europe's problems" — to sustained applause, before adding with smile : "This is what you get. You give speeches and you quote someone else and immediately everyone applauds."

Stubb's reiterated the view that "The global south will decide what the next world order will look like, and India, as a major power, will be a major — if not the — force in deciding whether the world will tilt towards conflictual multipolarity, characterised by deals, transactions and spheres of interest, or whether the world will tilt towards a new cooperative, fair and representative multilateral world order based on international institutions, rules and norms."

He had three proposals for Raisina to consider. First, reform the UN allowing permanent UN Security Council seats for Asia, Africa and Latin America. "India should have a permanent seat in the UN Security Council." Second, create global rules to control AI and other technology, "AI will only benefit the world when it is shared." he said, echoing recent comments from Pm Modi.

Third, Stubb called for the beefing up of organisations like ASEAN, the African Union and the EU as building blocks of a renewed multilateral system.

He also made a bold pitch for a "new San Francisco moment" — echoing the 1945 founding of the United Nations — he suggested it should happen in India with a meeting of world leaders to discuss what happens in the post-war period in both Ukraine and Iran. Noting that Finland has again topped global rankings while Indians consistently top global optimism surveys, he proposed a kind of positivity alliance. "Let's combine Finnish happiness and Indian optimism in constructing a fairer and more stable new world order."

Jaishankar Suggests a new Mindset

Delivering the vote of thanks, India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar was characteristically precise. He sketched out the terrain for the dialogue ahead — new military, economic and technological capabilities; two new mindsets: a willingness to take risks alongside a growing resolve to de-risk and diversify; and a hard look at "habits and assumptions — where they still apply and where we need to get over them."

India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar/ image AMC

He noted that Prime Minister Modi's presence "as always continues to serve as an inspiration," and that recent global events had only validated the need for Indians to develop sharper global awareness and for the world to develop an equally sharp awareness of India — "and we must constantly update both."

A Forum for the Times

In its eleventh year, the Raisina Dialogue has grown into something considerably larger than the annual conference it began as. Alongside the flagship New Delhi event, Samir Saran outlined smaller meetings now run in Australia, Japan, the UAE and Marseilles. This year, Raisina Americas launches in Canada.

The Taj Palace Hotel, venue for the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi/ image AMC

He also also mentioned a new Science and Diplomacy Initiative, which held its first meeting earlier in the day, co-chaired by Kiwi scientist Peter Gluckman in his capacity as President of the International Science Council. The meeting brought together around 70 scientists and diplomats, and was chaired by India's Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood,

Raisina this year comes along at a time of extreme stress, conflict and chaos in the international system, As the Finnish president put it, the era of western-dominated world order is over — "this is obvious but it will take some time to sink in across the west." Whether what replaces it is managed through cooperation or competition may, the evening's speakers suggested, depend in no small part on the choices India makes in the years ahead.

The dialogue continues for the next two days in New Delhi.

Asia Media Centre