“A large part of foreign policy today is communication,” Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said as the 9th Raisina Dialogue, an annual conference on geopolitics hosted by New Delhi, came to a close on Saturday. From regional conflicts and disruptive economics, to climate change and the threats posed by AI, the forum saw an exchange of intellectual viewpoints to predict plans towards the unfolding yet uncertain future.

A central note touching almost every topic was India’s meteoric rise and how it will respond to crises in the emerging global order. “India will be bigger in everyone’s lives in the coming decades,” Jaishankar predicted in a one-on-one session with Samir Saran, the president of the Observer Research Organization.

Perhaps the biggest indicator of India’s objective and peaceful rise in the world was New Delhi’s choice for the event’s chief guest – alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis graced the inaugural session of the flagship conference.

“India has transformed this event from a regional to a global public square for dialogue and exchange of ideas,” he said in his opening remarks, highlighting the unique significance New Delhi holds in contemporary international affairs. Just as the Dialogue was a “Made in India version of a global public square,” in the words of Dr. Jaishankar, similarly, India aspires to be the “global public square” for nations to come together and find common ground on global issues.

Additionally, the choice of the chief guest for the conference sent out important hints regarding how India wants the event to the perceived. Firstly, in today’s polarizing times when regional conflicts are dividing the global geopolitical balance, choosing a Greek representative to be the chief guest signifies and affirms India’s objective standing........

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