Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the inaugural session of the Raisina Dialogue
India's flagship global conference on geopolitics and geo-economics Raisina Dialogue will begin today with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the inaugural session, where seven former heads of state will share their views on challenges facing the world.
The fifth edition of the Raisina Dialogue, jointly organised by the Foreign Ministry and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), will bring together 700 international participants from over 100 countries.
The three-day conference will see participation of 12 foreign ministers, including from Russia, Iran, Australia, Maldives, South Africa, Estonia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Uzbekistan and the European Union (EU).
Iran Foreign Minister Javed Zarif's participation assumes significance as it comes following the killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
The Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth will also attend, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The NSA of Afghanistan, the Deputy NSA of the US and several ministers of state, including from Germany, will also present their ideas at the conference, it said.
The former heads of government who will engage in a discussion are former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen, former Bhutanese premier Tshering Tobgay and former South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo.
The synergies and collaborations in the Raisina Dialogue represent India's deliberative ethos as well as its international credibility and convening power, the Foreign Ministry said.