In Abu Dhabi, Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar sat across from UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at the Raisina Dialogue's Middle East session — and made the case that the world is changing fast enough that every country must now think beyond its traditional comfort zones.

A high-altitude conversation in Abu Dhabi

The session, titled 'The World Ahead: Power, Purpose and Possibility', brought India's top diplomat and the UAE's foreign minister together on the same stage for what Dr. Jaishankar described as an exploration of how nations navigate accelerating global change. The Raisina Dialogue — India's flagship annual geopolitical conference — has previously been hosted in New Delhi; this Middle East edition signals the format's expanding geographic ambition.

Dr. Jaishankar underscored that the churn in the global order reflects 'both long-term trends and immediate shocks' — a framing that captures everything from the realignment of supply chains to the fracturing of post-Cold War alliances. Countries, he argued, are responding 'as per their specific situation,' inevitably exploring 'new partnerships and fresh options.'

Minilateralism as the answer to multilateral gridlock

One of the sharpest points Dr. Jaishankar made was on the architecture of global governance: multilateral reform is urgent, but it can be supported — and in the meantime, partially compensated for — through stronger minilateralism. India has long pushed for UN Security Council reform and expanded representation in global bodies, a campaign running back to the early 2000s. The endorsement of minilateral groupings — smaller, purpose-built coalitions — reflects a pragmatic acceptance that the big institutions move slowly while the world does not wait.

This is consistent with India's track record: from the Quad to the I2U2 grouping (which includes India, Israel, the UAE and the United States), New Delhi has pursued nimble formats that deliver outcomes without requiring consensus from 193 UN member states.

A decade of India-UAE transformation

Dr. Jaishankar held up the India-UAE partnership of the last decade as a concrete exhibit of two countries that successfully adapted to a changing environment. That partnership has real weight behind it. The two nations signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in February 2022, one of the fastest trade deals India has ever concluded, covering goods, services and investment. Bilateral trade had already surpassed $85 billion in the years leading up to the agreement, making the UAE one of India's largest trading partners.

Beyond trade, the relationship spans energy, technology, defence, and the welfare of nearly 3.5 million Indians who live and work in the UAE — the single largest expatriate community in the country. Sheikh Abdullah has been central to that deepening, navigating both economic ambition and strategic alignment with New Delhi through a decade of high-level engagement.

Strategic awareness as the new currency

Perhaps the most consequential phrase from Dr. Jaishankar's remarks was his call for 'sharper strategic awareness' — the idea that in a world of multiplying options, clarity of purpose and the willingness to move beyond inherited alignments is not optional but essential. For India, that has meant engaging simultaneously with Washington, Moscow, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi without subordinating its foreign policy to any single axis.

The Abu Dhabi setting itself makes that point elegantly: a Raisina session in the Gulf, co-hosted with the UAE's top diplomat, is a diplomatic statement as much as a conference panel.

If the India-UAE partnership is the proof of concept, Dr. Jaishankar's message in Abu Dhabi was clear — the countries that thrive in the world ahead will be those bold enough to write new rules rather than waiting for old institutions to catch up.