On Day 2 of the ORF Raisina Dialogue, a session on “The Continental Debates: Europe’s Role in the World” was hosted. The major agenda of the discussion was how Europe can redefine its strategic role to form a balanced partnership with a new America in today’s multipolar order and what challenges must be addressed within Europe for the transatlantic alliance to endure.
The panel included Xavier Bettel, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg; Maria Malmer Stenergard, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden; Ruben Brekelmans, Minister of Defence of the Netherlands; Diego Martínez Belío, State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs of Spain; and Florence Gaub, Director of the Research Division at NATO Defence College, Italy. The session was moderated by Vanessa Ghanem, Arab Affairs Editor at The National, UAE.
During the session, the panel agreed that Europe needs to expand its overall security capabilities and that European Union countries must invest more in defence to strengthen their own strategic autonomy rather than remaining dependent on the United States.
The panel also discussed how the U.S. holds dominance over most present-day technologies used globally, making European companies secondary players in the technological space. They emphasized that European countries must innovate and develop their own technologies to create a stronger sense of self-reliance and competitiveness between Europe and the U.S.
Additionally, the panel agreed that the European Union must work towards creating its own military bloc to establish a stronger deterrence.
During the session, Samvada World posed a question to the panel regarding Europe’s leadership amid continuous challenges like Brexit and the end of Angela Merkel’s tenure as German Chancellor. The panel responded by asserting that these events have not weakened Europe. Instead, they argued that European security and bilateral engagement have strengthened, with countries now being more aware of contemporary developments and better prepared than they were a decade ago.
Aayush Pal is a freelance writer on contemporary geopolitical developments. The views expressed in his work are entirely his own.
Balaji Subramanian 
Shashank Pandey 
Sakshi Yadav