Nov 05, 2024 – Nov 06, 2024
The second edition of Raisina Down Under is hosted by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, India and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. Raisina Down Under 2024 will focus on the issues that define the future of the dynamic region that stretches from the Indian Ocean to the South Pacific. It will engage with groupings and regions—ASEAN, BIMSTEC, and the Pacific Islands—that are central to future growth, development, and geopolitical balance. Over one-and-a-half days, this forum will examine the sources of growth in the region and how infrastructure partnerships can shift development trajectories. It will examine the future of the green transition, the blue economy, and the technological revolution, and engage with the geopolitical trends at play within our region.
Saṁskāra, in its deepest essence, is a civilisational tool, a statement of continuity. It is the inheritance of meaning that allows societies to assert their truth, accommodate their contradictions, and advance through refinement. Today, nations are asserting sovereignty over borders and bandwidth alike — claiming their right to shape their economic futures, digital destinies, and industrial ambitions. This era of assertion marks a shift toward greater autonomy, but alongside it comes a quiet current of accommodation. Across continents, new coalitions are emerging — agile, interest-driven, and plurilateral — replacing a multilateralism where consensus has stalled. New norms are being shaped, grounded in shared interests rather than universal agreement.
Meanwhile, technology and governance are advancing their reach, bringing services, infrastructure and opportunity to long-underserved regions and communities. Four conversations define the world in 2025. Between America and the world, seeking to repair and re-establish dominance; between China and the world, in order to end or instrumentalise an economic asymmetry; and between the US and China, in a search for a new symmetry. But the fourth, between the other powers of the world, great and small, is perhaps the most consequential. It is a conversation about renewal over retreat, one that seeks to restore balance to the world – a conversation about structure, not merely about power. Where the old order splinters, new bonds form; where
Stay tuned for Raisina Dialogue 2026—fresh perspectives and new debates await!
