India’s convening power on full display at geopolitics forum

A lot about India has to do with scale and heft: the most populous nation on earth (1.4 billion), the fourth largest economy in the world, and the country with the third biggest number of billionaires, after the US and China, according to the Forbes ranking in 2026.
It also has to do with brinkmanship in its foreign policy, from Cold War-era non-alignment to strategic autonomy after the Cold War’s demise, and today, to multi-alignment as the world has drifted from the US-led unipolar system to a multipolar one, buttressed by the rise of regional powers.
India is one such rising power which, the New York Times writes, is winning the standoff between the US and China: “India has a unique role in global politics, doing deals with Europe one day and with Donald Trump the next, all while maintaining a strong partnership with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”
This is in keeping with India’s vibe. As Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, writes in his book, “The India Way”: “The first caution is to avoid obsessing about consistency…. It is only by recognizing change that we are in a position to exploit opportunities…. Obviously, our national strategy…cannot be static in an evolving world.”
I can’t help but compare this Indian spirit of brinkmanship to something so everyday: their rickshaw. In New Delhi, I rode their version of the Thais’ tuktuk in major streets — and it gave me a series of scares. In one instance, the driver, humming a tune, was confidently and speedily snaking in and out of tight spots in heavy traffic, almost kissing the rear end of cars and sideswiping those just a breath away. It was such a relief that we arrived at our destination without a scrape, and didn’t witness any accident.
The driver seemed to follow a natural flow, a rhythm guiding him and the rest in navigating the city’s busy highways, deftly managing the risks.

Raisina Dialogue

It was the Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier geopolitics and security forum, that brought me to New Delhi early this month. (The dialogue takes its name from Raisina Hill, the location of the President’s Residence, Parliament, and key ministries.) A first for me, it’s the country’s 11th iteration.
I learned about the Raisina Dialogue last year when then-foreign secretary Enrique Manalo spoke on the growing strategic convergence between the Philippines and India in defense, technology, as well as in the economic sector. A few months later, Manila and New Delhi would elevate their relations to a strategic partnership.
The Raisina Dialogue is India’s version of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and, to a certain extent, the Munich Security Forum. In Southeast Asia, three countries host similar annual forums but focus mainly on the South China Sea: the Manila Dialogue, going on its third year; Vietnam’s South China Sea International Conference, taking place for 17 years; and Malaysia’s South China Sea Conference, now for eight years.
What’s amazing about the Raisina Dialogue is its size, well, like many things about India. More than 3,000 participants (government officials, academics, corporate types, military officers, think tanks, journalists) from various countries attended, although I saw a lot of locals. This, despite the US-Israeli war on Iran which led to hundreds of participant cancellations.
The full support given by the external affairs ministry to the organizer, the think tank Observer Research Foundation, helped a lot in inviting important speakers from an array of countries.
Like other delegates, I had to have a daily battle plan: selecting from equally interesting simultaneous sessions and getting to the panels early for fear of losing seats. Otherwise, I had to work my way in, using my elbows.

Finland’s president and the Global South

The program was released only a couple of days before the event so it was a wonderful surprise to learn that the inaugural speaker was the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb. I’ve followed this highly articulate leader of a small and sauna-happy country (3.3 million saunas for a population of 5.5 million) because of his insightful speeches and interviews on Ukraine, Russia, the rest of Europe, and the US. Turns out, he is a foreign policy nerd with a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics. He just wrote a book, “The Triangle of Power: Rebalancing the World Order,” which the Raisina Dialogue devoted a session to.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not speak but was present on the first day of the Raisina Dialogue, graciously hosting Stubb, who paid homage to India, humbled by the fact that his country’s population is only a speck compared to India’s.
Here’s the crux of his speech:
“…the Global South will decide what the next world order will look like. India, as a major power, will be a major force in deciding whether the world will tilt towards conflictual multipolarity characterized by deals, transactions and spheres of interests. Or whether we can build a new cooperative, fair and representative multilateral world order based on international institutions, rules and norms.
The policy choices that India and other key powers make truly matter in this time of transition. They will set the direction for the future.
The global balance of power has shifted. The Global South has both demography and economy on its side. The era of a Western dominated world order is over.”
To reflect the global shift, Stubb proposed two new permanent seats for Asia, two for Africa, and one for Latin America in the UN Security Council. India, he said, should sit as a permanent member.
The three-day Raisina Dialogue reintroduced me to India, particularly its convening power extending to Europe, the US, and the Middle East. Even Iran’s deputy foreign minister attended despite the crisis and spoke about the existential threat to his country, leaving them no choice but to retaliate.
The dialogue featured rich panels on China, Europe, and the US. While there were a number of discussions on the Indo-Pacific, Southeast Asia hardly figured. This could show that India’s current geopolitical gaze hasn’t yet fully stretched to our part of the world.
Let me know what you think. You can email me at marites.vitug@rappler.com.
Till next newsletter!