Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, will inaugurate the third edition of the Raisina Dialogue on 16 January, 2017 at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi.
Indian Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and ORF Chairman Mr Sunjoy Joshi will also be part of the inaugural session of this annual geo-political event, organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
Sushma Swaraj will also deliver the Plenary Address on January 17. The theme of the Dialogue this year is 'Managing Disruptive Transitions: Ideas, Institutions & Idioms'
The other ministers taking part in the three-day Dialogue include Union Commerce and Industry Minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Textiles and I & B Minister Smriti Irani, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mr Jayant Sinha, Ministers of State for External Affairs, Mr M.J. Akbar and General (retired) V.K. Singh and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri.
The chiefs of Army and Navy, General Bipin Rawat and Admiral Sunil Lanba will address the three-day Dialogue, along with Admiral Harry Harris, Commander, US Pacific Command, General Chris Deverell, Joint Forces Commander, UK, Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, Japan, and Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, Chief of Navy, Australia.
Ministerial delegations from many countries like Australia, Russia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Poland are attending this year's conference. The ministers include Australia's Minister for Defence Industry, Mr Christopher Pyne, Indonesia's Minister for Defence Mr Ryamizard Ryacudu, Bangladesh's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Russia's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Igor Morgulov, Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Defence and Foreign affairs, Mr Maliki Osman, Poland's Deputy Minister of foreign Affairs, Marek Magierowski, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Kazem Sajjadpour, Hungary's Minister of State for Security Policy and International Cooperation, Mr Istvan Mikola and Sri Lanka's State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vasantha Senanayake.
Former President of Afghanistan, Mr Hamid Karzai, former Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Stephen Harder and former Prime Minister of Sweden, Mr Carl Bildt, are among more than 150 speakers and over 550 delegates from around 90 countries who are participating in the Dialogue.
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ORF Chairman Mr Sunjoy Joshi said the Raisina Dialogue was born two years ago, in 2016, in the belief that the Asian century that the world was talking about was not about any exclusive geographical region. It was rather about the engagement of global actors with Asia and of Asia with the world. So this dialogue took birth as a platform, where the old and the new could work together, to discover their connections, their inter-dependence. It has today become a crucible for conversations and ideas that while located in India can be owned by the world.
Stressing the diplomatic importance of the conference, Mr Joshi said "when the world is drifting to globalisation, protectionism, restrictive borders and predatory economics, Raisina 2018 once again seeks to find strength in our common future".
It convenes more than 500 speakers and delegates across as many as 50 topics to not just discuss the new fractures within our global order, but find the appropriate responses to these, Mr Joshi said.
The curator of Raisina Dialogue and the Vice President of ORF Mr Samir Saran said the Raisina Dialogue is India's attempt to reclaim its role as the hub of knowledge and ideas, as during the times of Nalanda, in the 21st century. He said this is Asia's largest forum with over 1800 participants, striving to make India a leading force.
The Raising Dialogue has been fast growing in strength. In the inaugural Dialogue, 120 foreign delegates from 40 countries had participated. In the second, the strength went up to more than 250 foreign participants from 65 countries.