From 'values to value'

This year’s Raisina Dialogue underscored the importance of pragmatic diplomacy in a fractured world

- SATARUPA BHATTACHARJYA

A key takeaway from last week's Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi is that countries struggling to navigate current geopolitics have little option but to pursue diplomacy with only national interests in mind.

Held over March 5-7 amid a raging war in West Asia, the international security conference, annually hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank, also highlighted how the West-led global order, in place since the end of World War II (1945), has collapsed. During the closing session of the conference, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri asked if the developing world was given a voice in shaping the so-called rule-based order.

Calling for the reform of global institutions and rules, he said, he isn’t making a case for India but “it is a scandal that Africa does not have a larger voice at the global table”. More than half the decisions concerning the continent are taken at the United Nations Security Council without an African voice in a “decision-making role”.