 "Raisina Dialogue a 'crossroads' for global discourse on conflict, trade and security: Misri")
Calling the Raisina Dialogue a “crossroads” for open and multi-dimensional discussions, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday that the forum has, over the years, influenced global discourse on issues ranging from regional conflicts to environmental crises.
Speaking at a session-themed “Kalchakra” (wheel of time), Misri described a world where economic nationalism and globalisation coexist in a constant push and pull.
He also invoked the metaphor of the “arc of history” to emphasise his point.
”Because, we often talk of the arc of history bending in this direction and that…and therefore, it was particularly instructive to see this mentioned recently, which is that the arc of history that bends in a ceratin direction, can also snap back without warning,” Misri said.
”And, this is the point where we remember ’kalchakra’, and therefore, perhaps, one thing that I would leave all of you with…what we perhaps need to shed the arrogance of certainty, as we meet to discuss the state of our people, state of our planet, and prospects of peace on this one world that we inhabit,” he said.
The foreign secretary said the Raisina Dialogue’s first edition started in 2016 and now in its tenth edition, the scale of the event and its participants both have grown.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn the Raisina Dialogue 2025, there are 125 sessions planned over the three days from March 17-19, and from 35 countries in inaugural edition, this time 131 countries are being represented at the conclave.
”Over the years, the content and quality at the Raisina Dialogue have not only kept pace with the international churn, they have also in the process shaped the evolving discourse on the key issues of our times,” Misri said.
Be it regional conflicts, socio-cultural realignments, trade and technology disruptions, supply chain resilience, or environmental crises, sustainability and growth and development, the foreign secretary said.
Since, international order, especially one where ”rules are increasingly being challenged”, is often ”likened to a jungle”, the importance of watering holes such as this, is something that would not be lost on the audience here, he added.
”Raisina (Dialogue) therefore offers an apt, global public square…and a crossroads, if you will, for free flowing multi-dimensional discussions while bringing a breathtaking diversity of opinions to the table,” he said.
”And, the menu at the table this year is a full one, if not already overflowing, a world in which the push and pull of the forces of economic nationalism and globalisation co-exist, where there is growing scepticism towards multilateral institutions.
”…And an increasing preference for more transactional approaches, where techno-optimism seems to be growing in salience by the day, where strategic lenses are shifting, where budgets are being rejigged and postures are being revaluated on a daily basis. All of this, it seems, will offer rich pickings for the deliberations at Raisina this year,” he said.
Naturally, on an occasion like this, Misri said, he was tempted to invoke the weighty vocabulary of turning points, and the crossroads of history having been arrived at, ”but I will leave all of that to the wiser minds in the room”.
Soon after his address, a panel discussion — ’Compete and Cooperate: Securing the Future’ was held.
Participating in the panel discussion, Jonathan Powell, National Security Adviser, United Kingdom, said, ”geopolitics is back with a vengeance, and we have to deal with all the time.” ”In Europe, certainly, we have a problem of invasion of one of countries by another country which we have been trying to wrestle with…in three years. We now have an opportunity with (US) President (Donald) Trump proposing a peace process, the first person, who has been able to make this happen. We have the Ukrainian government which is willing to enter immediately, a ceasefire, with no condition. And, now we are waiting to see if Russia will join as well,” the British NSA said.
Powell said there is a glimmer of hope.
”…And President Trump is making efforts in trying to make peace in Ukraine, and Ukrainian people certainly want the war to end, as long as it can be ended on the basis of justice and lasting peace that they can live with. So, geopolitics is back, it doesn’t mean there is no hope in these cases,” he added.
On global connectivity projects, he said geoeconomics is instrumentally linked to geopolitics. Economic issues can cause a conflict or they can bring about success, he said.
”I notice that in a podcast interview, Prime Minister Modi talks about optimism in relationship with China… now that will partly be based on economics in what India and China can do together, but it will also depend on politics. So, if you can turn the economics, if you can turn these links into something positive, you can change through geopolitics at the same time,” Powell said.
With inputs from PTI
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