Raisina stresses realism

This year’s Raisina Dialogue framed diplomacy as a search for workable deals in a fractured world, not a contest over the grandest rhetoric. (orfonline.org) The 11th edition ran in New Delhi from March 5 to March 7, 2026, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi opening the event and Finland President Alexander Stubb delivering the keynote. India’s foreign ministry said about 2,700 people attended in person from 110 countries. (mea.gov.in) The official agenda was built around practical questions: whether Europe can build security with “spending up and trust down,” how the United States is redefining partnerships, and how trade, tariffs, climate and technology are reshaping statecraft. The conference listed six pillars, from “Contested Frontiers” to “Trade in the Time of Tariffs.” (raisinadialogue.org) Observer Research Foundation, which organizes the forum with India’s Ministry of External Affairs, described the 2026 theme as “Saṁskāra – Assertion, Accommodation, Advancement.” Its preview argued that countries are asserting sovereignty while also forming “agile, interest-driven, and plurilateral” coalitions as older multilateral consensus stalls. (orfonline.org) That language marked a shift in emphasis from universal formulas to bargaining among states with different interests. In the conference preview for its 2026 essay series, ORF said the world is “negotiating flux rather than stability” and adapting to disorder rather than waiting for certainty to return. (orfonline.org) The backdrop was a year of active wars, tariff fights and alliance strain. A Lowy Institute account of the March meeting said flight disruptions tied to conflict with Iran affected attendance, but the forum still hosted both Israel’s foreign minister and Iran’s deputy foreign minister. (lowyinstitute.org) The same account said delegates spent less time on abstract alignment and more time on managing immediate risks around the United States, Europe, West Asia and China. It described Donald Trump as “a problem to be managed” in conference discussions and noted a sharper Indian frustration with U.S. policy than in earlier years. (lowyinstitute.org) That harder-edged tone also appeared in the agenda itself. One opening panel asked whether Europe has any “realistic alternatives” to a U.S.-led security order, while another session with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau focused on American foreign policy “in a new era.” (raisinadialogue.org) ORF’s own debate essays made the same case in institutional terms. In a March 5 essay tied to the conference, Nina Sajić wrote that multilateralism is not ending but being contested, and argued that future institutions will need to work amid rivalry rather than depend on restored consensus. (orfonline.org) Raisina has long presented itself as a place where governments, analysts and business leaders test ideas before policy hardens. In 2026, the dominant message from its organizers and much of its coverage was narrower: diplomacy now starts with interests, leverage and negotiation, then works backward toward order. (orfonline.org)