Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, in New Delhi hours before they were due to open the Raisina Dialogue 2026. Stubb, on a four-day state visit and guest of honour and keynote speaker at the geopolitical conference, held wide-ranging talks with Modi, including on the escalating US‑Israel conflict with Iran. Stubb had also met foreign minister S. Jaishankar earlier in the day.
Modi said India and Finland both “believe in the rule of law, dialogue and diplomacy,” stressing that no dispute can be solved by military means alone. “Be it Ukraine or West Asia, we will continue to support the swift end of conflicts and every effort towards peace,” he told reporters, using an Indian term for the Middle East. He added that, amid an era of “instability and uncertainty,” relations between India and Europe were entering a golden era.
Their diplomatic exchange came as the region was rocked by a naval incident: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a US submarine reportedly torpedoed and sank an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka after the ship left Visakhapatnam. Sri Lanka’s navy said it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people, with roughly 60 still unaccounted for. The Iranian warship had taken part in the International Fleet Review 2026 and MILAN 2026 naval exercises in India.
New Delhi has not issued a public comment on the sinking or its wider implications; the Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to requests for comment. Modi expressed “deep concern” for Indians in the affected region and reiterated condemnation of Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations. Former ambassador KC Singh wrote on social media that silence amounted to a failing diplomacy and warned India was being “pushed deeper and deeper into a corner.”
The conflict is already affecting markets. After a four-day selloff triggered by the US‑Israel war with Iran, Indian benchmark indices recovered somewhat on Thursday morning, with the Sensex up about 0.43% and the Nifty 50 up about 0.69% at midday IST, following earlier losses that wiped out significant investor wealth. The initial market fall was driven by concerns over global oil supplies: Brent crude has risen roughly 15% since the conflict began, to its highest level since July 2024, after Iranian strikes disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for more than 20% of global oil shipments.
Energy analyst Vibhuti Garg of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis warned India’s crude reserves cover less than a month’s consumption, calling the outlook “very, very volatile.” If the confrontation drags on, she said, further crude price rises could stoke broader inflationary pressures alongside a weakening rupee.
The Raisina Dialogue, New Delhi’s flagship geopolitical forum, drew diplomats, analysts and leaders as the crisis unfolded, and domestic concerns were prominent: many Indians have family, students or workers in the Gulf, while market volatility has caused financial stress for others. The inauguration coincided with Holi, the spring festival of colours, a juxtaposition DW’s New Delhi bureau described as a snapshot of rising temperatures—both literal and geopolitical—across the region.