Opinion - News Analysis   

Partners in the 21st century

Franz Josef Jung

INDIA, FROM the German point of view, is a textbook example for the possibilities of globalisation. The largest democracy in the world prides itself on a robust and sustainable economic growth of seven per cent on average and is experiencing a rapid build-up of promising economic sectors such as services and high technology. This goes hand-in-hand with an increase in India's political weight and its readiness to assume responsibility for peace and security in the world.

Today, Germany and India enjoy a close and trusting relationship. We have been working together on a multitude of projects. First of all, the reform of the United Nations deserves special mention. For years, our two countries have been making a joint effort to bring about a reform of the world organisation that really deserves to be called a reform.

However, our commitment to what the U.N. stands for, namely preserving peace in the world or restoring it where necessary, goes even further. Both India and Germany have committed themselves militarily to attaining these goals. Our nations' forces are currently deployed together in the context of the United Nations International Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In Afghanistan, we have been making a multi-faceted effort to support the Afghan Government in stabilising and pacifying the country. Germany has deployed around 3,200 troops mainly in the northern region, where we have also assumed command responsibility. Our countries have been engaged in improving the partnership between Europe and Asia, as for example in the Asean Regional Forum.

India and Germany have not only cooperated in an exemplary manner at the international level, but also the bilateral partnership between our two countries has clearly gained momentum over the past few years. The course was set for that when the "Agenda for German-Indian Partnership in the 21st Century" was signed in New Delhi in 2000.

In addition to economic, cultural, and scientific-technological cooperation, joint efforts in the service of peace, stability, and security have moved into the focus of our common activities. This was underscored by the agreement establishing a strategic dialogue signed by the then Minister of Defence, Pranab Mukherjee, and myself in Berlin last year. Besides strategic defence cooperation, this dialogue includes the areas of defence technology cooperation and military-to-military cooperation. What is important here is to identify fields of activity and projects in which we can learn from each other and which are crucial for our common future.

Terrorism threat

After all, international terrorism, the greatest challenge to security policy, is posing a threat to the freedom and security of democratic societies across all continents. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their launching vehicles is increasingly becoming an international problem that calls for comprehensive answers. Quite often the consequences of internal and regional conflicts, the destabilisation and internal disintegration of states in faraway areas have an immediate impact on our own societies. The same is true for the implications of the destruction of the environment, of pandemics and epidemics.

Strategies successfully employed in the past to ward off external dangers are proving inadequate in particular for dealing with the new asymmetric threats. Here, the international community is facing increasingly complex challenges. Effective security provisions require a preventive, effective and coherent strategy at both the national and international levels.

Hazards to our security must be countered where they emerge. With about 8,000 servicemen and women deployed in operations abroad, Germany ranks among the largest troop contributors to international stabilisation operations led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU). So far, over 200,000 German military personnel have been engaged in the service of peace and stability in crisis zones around the world. Currently, servicemen and women from our armed forces are on operations in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, at the Horn of Africa, in Georgia, and off the coast of Lebanon. Since 1992, we have also repeatedly participated in international operations in Asia: in Cambodia, in East Timor and Banda Aceh. We are firmly convinced that by establishing peace and self-sustaining stability in our close vicinity, and even in far-away regions, we not only contribute to making the world a more peaceful place but also enhance our own security.

At the same time, we are learning form these military missions that the challenges to our security can only be met successfully if we counter them using a comprehensive approach. This is why Germany champions a comprehensive notion of security in NATO, in the EU with its broad range of civilian and military instruments, and in the U.N., the organisation responsible for international peace and security. Besides military means, this notion must also include economic, police, development policy and diplomatic instruments and employ them in an integrated manner. Along the lines of this notion of common responsibility for security and peace we count on India as an important partner and ally in the world.

The strategic partnership between Germany and India is thus in the service of our two nations and of peace in the world.

(Dr. Jung is German Defence Minister.)

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