Germany

To Canvass for Eurofighter?

German Chancellor, Ms. Angela Merkel’s second visit to India within four years coincides not only with the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Germany, but also with the timing when India is just a few days away from placing orders for 126 fighter aircraft for upgrading the Indian Air Force. Referring to the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is facing tough competition with the French Dassault Rafale, the German Chancellor pointed out in her joint press conference with the Indian Prime Minister, “We are convinced that we have the best product on offer as our competitors do too. We will certainly not exert any kind of influence on this process. We wish this to be a very transparent process and a smooth one. We are aware of the fact that we have a good product and we shall wait and see.”

The visit to New Delhi was not primarily to receive the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, but aimed at promoting the fighter aircraft deal.

However, transfer of technology from Germany on hardware it sells to India has always been a stumbling block in such purchases. Germany has in the past opposed transferring technology for its military hardware that it proposed to sell. This makes India dependent on after sales spares and technology heavily on Germany, unlike Russia with which it is already developing the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft although it may take another ten years to have the fighter flying the Indian skies. The German Chancellor tactfully avoided commenting on India’s nuclear power program of producing 20,000 megawatts of power through nuclear plants saying, “I think it is up to each and every country to decide what energy mix it wishes to use to supply energy. We ourselves have said we want to phase our nuclear energy over a period of ten years. But for many years we also had an energy mix in Germany in which nuclear power had its share. We are cooperating with India in many ways, and in renewables, and also I think we can do a lot to boost energy efficiency. If I understood the Environment Minister correctly, on the one hand you have the aim of building up renewables but also building up very efficient coal-fired power plants where the Germans are already working with you, and also building up photovoltaic plants. Over the next two years 20,000 MW are supposed to be generated which is about the volume that we still have generated by our nuclear power plants in Germany. So, building up a very broad-based energy mix with renewables here in India is a policy where we can obviously support you all along the way. I think what will be very important is to see to it that renewable energies can supply the base load for the grid and that put together with biomass and wind energy one can come to very good results.”

Germany has all along been opposed to use of nuclear power plants in India. Chancellor Merkel’s predecessors had held the same opinion going to the extent of saying that India would not be able to ensure the safety standards of its nuclear power plants. The German Chancellor agreed with the Indian Prime Minister’s view of increasing the volume of trade saying, “We have very close economic ties. We would like to have 20 billion (Euros) trade volume by 2012. We have reached 15 by now. We have growth rates of over 15 per cent. So, there is a very dynamic development there and still a lot remains to be done.”

Ms. Merkel underlined the need for “structural reform” in the UN Security Council which she said “no longer reflects the current state of affairs. It still harks back to the days after the World War II.”

The high-level delegation that accompanied the German Chancellor included Dr. Annette Schavan, Federal Minister for Education and Research and Defence Minister, Mr. Thomas De Maizere among others.

Four agreements were signed during the visit of the Chancellor including cooperation in the field of vocational education and training between the two countries.

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