With India’s economic rise, it needs to take a greater interest and responsibility in world affairs. Andreas Schockenhoff, Member, German Federal Parliament, delivering a lecture on ‘Europe at the crossroads’ to members of the Madras Management Association, said, “In the 21th century we want India to play an active role, take risks and make decisions in international politics. In a changing world India cannot remain a spectator.”

Speaking to the media after his talk, Schockenhoff said that he wants to encourage India to play a more active role “because I think India’s political contribution to global affairs is nowhere near its economic potential and demographics and in a multi-polar world India will be one of the global players. And in Germany and Europe we will not like Asia to be represented in the world only by China and Japan, but also by a country with potential like India. It’s in global interest for India to be involved.”

In his talk, he said that the unification of Europe and its integration has been a success story, especially for Germany. It had brought decades of peace to a continent that saw two devastating wars. Germany’s strength as an export nation too is largely based on the single European market.

Referring to the Euro debt crisis, Schockenhoff said the need of the hour is a fiscal stability union based on solidity and solidarity. On Greece, he said, “Greeks are the masters are of their own fate….if Greece does not fulfil the agreed upon conditions, it will not receive fresh money. Because if we established a policy of perpetually repeated ‘final measures’, the Euro Zone will lose its credibility.”

In the later part of his talk, he dwelt on the Arab spring and the challenge the transformation of the Arab world poses to Europe.

The event was also hosted by the Centre for Security Analysis (CSA) and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Lt Gen (Retd) V.R. Raghavan, President, CSA, chaired the talk.

Related Topics