Nigerian FM Geoffrey Onyeama arrives in New Delhi ahead of Raisina Dialogue
Apr 24, 2022
New Delhi [India], April 24 : Ahead of Raisina Dialogue scheduled to be held on April 25, Foreign Minister of Nigeria Geoffrey Onyeama arrived in New Delhi on Sunday morning on an official visit.
Onyeama will also attend the Raisina Dialogue international conference. Taking to Twitter, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote, "Pleased to welcome FM @GeoffreyOnyeama of Nigeria as he arrives in New Delhi on an official visit. He will also be attending the @raisinadialogue starting tomorrow."
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau will also visit India from April 25-27, Poland Foreign Ministry announced in a statement. This will be the first visit of a Polish foreign minister to India in nine years.
Poland FM's visit also includes a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and bilateral talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the seventh edition of the Raisina dialogue on April 25, said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi during the MEA weekly briefing on Thursday.
The dialogue, which will be held over three days from April 25 to April 27, will witness the participation of European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen as the chief guest.
The Raisina Dialogue 2022, based on the theme "Terranova- Impassioned, Impatient, Imperilled", will be modelled along six thematic pillars --Rethinking Democracy: trade, technology and ideology; End of Multilateralism: a networked global order; Water Caucuses: turbulent tides in the Indo-Pacific; Communities Inc: first responders to health, development, and planet; Achieving Green Transitions: common imperative, diverging realities; Samson vs Goliath: the persistent and relentless technology wars.
The Raisina Dialogue, which started in 2016, is India's flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community. The conference is organised by MEA in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
The dialogue, which was held virtually last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be held in in-person format this year, informed Bagchi. "Raisina Dialogue 2022 will have around 100 sessions with over 210 speakers from 90 countries. There will be side events that will be hosted in Berlin and Washington. Raisina's young fellows programme will also be conducted on the sidelines of this main conference," said Bagchi.
The MEA spokesperson further said that the conference will most likely be attended by former PM of Sweden Carl Bildt, former Canada PM Stephen Harper, former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and former Australia PM Anthony Abbott.
"We will also be counting on a pre-recorded message from the President of United Nations General Assembly Abdulla Shahid," added Bagchi.
In terms of the participation of foreign ministers, the MEA spokesperson informed that the foreign ministers of Argentina, Armenia, Guyana, Nigeria, Norway, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia will be attending the event. He further said that the Australian foreign may also join the conference virtually.
Bagchi said that the foreign ministers, during their visit to India, will also have official engagements with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
