Why Merkel’s visit matters: Playing Berlin Sonata in New Delhi
Barely days after meeting the leader of Europe’s most powerful economy in New York at a summit meeting to push the UNSC reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be engaging German Chancellor Angela Merkel for full-spectrum talks in New Delhi and seek Berlin’s renewed support for his pet missions of national renewal, including Make in India, Skill India and Smart Cities.
The fact that Ms Merkel is bringing with her six senior ministers and top corporate honchos for the October 4-6 trip to New Delhi and Bangalore underlines that the two countries are looking to push the envelope for what Europe’s top economy and Asia’s third largest economy can do together in a host of areas, including manufacturing, skill building, defence, vocational education and high-end R&D, core thrust areas of the burgeoning India-Germany partnership.
In seminal ways, India and Germany are made for each other, as Prime Minister Modi has said evocatively, conjuring up a match between resources and demographic dividend of Asia’s rising economy and Germany’s cutting-edge technology, research and innovations. Whichever way one looks at, Germany is pivotal to India’s project of national resurgence and will play a key role in India’s ambition to become a manufacturing hub, driven by innovation and enterprise.