New Delhi
31 May 2011
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to India made headlines even before
her aircraft landed in New Delhi Tuesday morning. Iran first refused permission to the
Airbus A-340 "Konrad Adenauer", Germany's equivalent of the US' Air Force One, for
flying over its airspace but later relented, delaying her arrival in New Delhi by two hours.
She more than made up for the avoidable distraction by immediately plunging headlong
into the talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which she reaffirmed Germany's
10-year-old strategic partnership with India; inked four pacts to expand bilateral
cooperation in areas such as vocational education and training, science and technology,
and research; and exchanged views on a wide swath of issues such as trade, counter-
terrorism, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and reform of the United Nations security council
(UNSC), which Germany and India are spearheading along with Brazil and Japan.
While Prime Minister Singh was "in agreement" with Ms Merkel on the need for UNSC
reforms and he shared similar views about regional peace and security, some
divergences were discernible in their positions on issues such as the way forward in
Libya, whether a non-European should head the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and
nuclear energy.
Ms Merkel, whose government announced plans Monday to shut down all nuclear power
plants in Germany by 2022, wants the focus to shift to renewable sources of energy in
the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster. For his part, Prime Minister Singh insisted that
making use of nuclear energy, together with maximum possible emphasis on
renewables, was a combination India needed if it was to meet its emission targets.
However, the differences did not dissuade Ms Merkel from offering to partner with India
in nuclear safety and green energy. Defence and security dialogue was progressing
satisfactorily, too. Indian counter-terrorism officials were expected to meet with their
German counterparts in September to discuss operational matters, including, but not
limited to, equipment and technologies. Also, external affairs minister SM Krishna would
participate in the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in December.
From Germany's perspective, the contract for the sale of multi-role aircraft to the Indian
air force will be of considerable significance given that the Eurofighter Typhoon is one of
two aircraft on New Delhi's shortlist. Speaking at a joint press conference with Prime
Minister Singh, Ms Merkel said, "With the Eurofighter we have made good proposals and
want to intensify our relationship with India. The Eurofighter is the best product on offer".
Incidentally, the diplomatic standoff between Iran and Germany over denial of
permission to the "Konrad Adenauer", named after post-war Germany's first chancellor,
coincided with the visit here by an Iranian delegation for resolving the issue of oil
payments. India is seeking an alternative mechanism for making payments for the
imports of crude oil from Iran after Germany discontinued the practice of routing the
payments through the Hamburg-based Europaisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (or EIH
Bank.)
Iran's relations with Germany, which along with the five permanent UNSC members (the
US, the UK, France, China and Russia) had held negotiations over Iran's nuclear
programme, has deteriorated of late. Recently the European Union and the United States
imposed further sanctions on Iran.
The Iranian ambassador in Berlin was called to the German foreign ministry to explain
the snub. Iran is since understood to have blamed "technical-organisational events",
according to a media report, for the lapse due to which Ms Merkel's aircraft was forced to
circle over Turkey for a couple of hours.
Ms Merkel is the second European head of government to have visited India on a
refurbished aircraft. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France had used a new official Airbus
plane, dubbed Air Sarko One, for his December 2010 visit here, although unlike Ms
Merkel, he had already flown on it on its maiden flight to South Korea for the G-8 summit
in November.
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