Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue 2026 in the National Capital on March 6. The talks between two ministers comes amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia, which was triggered by the joint US-Israel strikes against Iran on February 28, aimed at degrading Tehran’s missile capabilities and military infrastructure.
The 11th edition of the Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, commenced on March 5, bringing together an array of global leaders, policymakers and strategic experts. The three-day conference, organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), convenes heads of state, ministers, academics, industry leaders, think tanks and members of the media to deliberate on pressing global challenges.
Jaishankar met French Minister delegate for Europe Benjamin Haddad, State Secretary in Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Niels Annen and Tanzania’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ng’waru Jumanne Maghembe. On the sidelines, Jaishankar also met GLOBESEC think-tank founder and President Robert Vass and European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Co-founder and Director Mark Leonard.
In a statement, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated, “The theme of the 2026 edition is “Saṁskāra – Assertion, Accommodation, Advancement”. Over the course of three days, decision makers and thought leaders of the world will engage each other across conversations in various formats, over six thematic pillars:
(i) Contested Frontiers: Power, Polarity, and Periphery;
(ii) Repairing the Commons: New Groups, New Guardians, New Avenues;
(iii) White Whale: The Pursuit of Agenda 2030;
(iv) The Eleventh Hour: Climate, Conflict, and the Cost of Delay;
(v) Tomorrowland: Towards a Tech-topia;
(vi) Trade in the Time of Tariffs: Recovery, Resilience, Reinvention.”
