India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-strategy – Raisina Dialogue – is coming up with its eighth edition from Thursday.

The multilateral conference held annually in New Delhi will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be the chief guest and the keynote speaker at the inaugural session of the eighth Raisina Dialogue, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The Ministry of External Affairs is organising the event in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (URF) from March 2-4.

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The conference which is being organised under the theme “Provocation, Uncertainty, Turbulence: Lighthouse in the Tempest?”, will witness the participation of representatives from over 100 countries.

The conference which will commence on Thursday, will begin with an inaugural session from 6:30 – 7:30 pm (IST). This will befollowed by an inaugural dinner from 7:45 – 9:45 pm which will include welcome remarks by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra.

There will be keynote addresses by Minister of Health and Family Welfare-Mansukh Mandaviya, Senior Vice President, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan-Sachiko Imoto, Member of Parliament, Portuguese National Parliament, Portugal-Ricardo Baptista Leite.

From 10:20 – 11:10 pm on Thursday, there will be a session on ‘Conversations Over Kahwa’ which will be presided by Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, India- Sanjeev Sanyal, Political Director, Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, Hungary-Balazs Orban, Founder, Her Afghanistan, USA, Mariam Wardak, among others.

Day two of the Raisina Dialogue will begin with ministerial remarks session by Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan from 9 – 9:10 am.

This will be followed by a panel discussion from 9:10-9:50 am, further details of which are yet to be announced.

There will be another panel discussion from 9:50-10:40 am which will be presided by High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice-President of the European Commission-Josep Borrell Fontelles, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada-Melanie Joly.

Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Hassan Shoukry Selim will preside over a panel discussion from 11:10-11:50 pm.

At 12 pm on Friday, there will be conversation between Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov and Chairman, Observer Research Foundation, Sunjoy Joshi.

From 4:25 – 5:15 pm on Friday, there will be a panel discussion on the topic ‘Bytes of Promise: How Can Technology Lift Communities?’, which will be presided by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs M. U. M. Ali Sabry.

Day three of the Raisina dialogue, Saturday, will begin with Conversations over Breakfast.

At 9:15 am, there will be ministerial remarks by Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs, Meenakashi Lekhi.

From 5:10-6 pm on Saturday, there will be a panel discussion presided over by Croatia’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Gordan Grlic Radman.

A showstopper panel discussion from 7:10-8 pm will be presided by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. This will be followed by closing dinner discussions.

Over 2,500 participants would be joining the dialogue in person and the proceedings would reach millions across various digital platforms.

During the past eight years, the Raisina Dialogue has consistently grown in stature and profile to establish itself as one of the leading global conferences on international affairs.

The last edition of Raisina Dialogue took place in Sydney where External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Sydney. Jaishankar gifted her a cricket bat signed by Indian captain Rohit Sharma while his Australian counterpart gifted him an Australian cricket jersey with ‘Jaishankar’ written on it.