‘Raisina Dialogue has set a high bar’: Ex-Australia PM Tony Abbott on what Davos should be

Raisina Dialogue has set a high bar and shown what the World Economic Forum at Davos should aspire to be, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said.

In an article on his experience at Raisina Dialogue 2026 (March 5-7) in Delhi, Abbott said that the conference was better than the WEF at Davos as it was "not so dominated by politically correct plutocrats".

At the same time, Raisina Dialogue was better than the longer-running Chinese Boao Forum because it not essentially an exercise in homage to the host government, said Abbott.

Raisina Dialogue is organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It is India's largest annual conference that features a heads of state and government, foreign ministers, diplomats, and some of the world's most prominent academics and scholars to discuss the world's pressing issues. Finnish President Alexander Stubb was the chief guest this year.

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In his review of the conference, Abbot said that the Raisina Dialogue does not necessarily accord privilege to rank.

"It might get you onto the stage as a speaker or panelist, but it's the quality of the contribution that counts. After all, no one has a monopoly on knowledge or wisdom and everyone should be there to justify ideas and to learn from the discussion," said Abbot, who has been a regular at the conference since 2022.

In this year's edition, among other sessions, Abbott joined former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, former US diplomat Atul Keshap, and former Deputy Homeland Secretary Jane Holl Lute, in a discussion moderated by Firstpost Managing Editor Palki Sharma on US President Donald Trump reshaping the world.

In his article, Abbott highlighted that Raisina Dialogue —that began in 2016— was the brainchild of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who was the foreign secretary at the time.

"To his credit, Jaishankar invariably attends numerous sessions, sometimes simply sitting in the audience, sometimes as a keynote speaker, and sometimes as one of up to a half-dozen discussants on any particular topic; politely agreeing or taking issue with his fellow panelists, as the debate goes. Remarkably for someone of such accomplishment (successively India's ambassador to China, the United States, and head of the Ministry of External Affairs, before becoming the Foreign Minister) Jai doesn't talk down, and is on 'receive' far more often than 'transmit'," said Abbott about Jaishankar.