The Hindu : German President sees huge potential for trade ties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 03, 2003

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German President sees huge potential for trade ties

By K. K. Katyal

NEW DELHI MARCH 2. Valuing India as a major partner, the German President, Johannes Rau, now here on a five-day visit, proposes to focus on steps to promote economic exchanges with India and cooperation in science and technology. Seeing vast untapped potential, he advocates dismantling of trade and investment barriers for better results.

Dr. Rau dealt with bilateral and global subjects in a "written" exclusive interview — replying to some 10 questions sent to him. It was a rare case of a head of state choosing not to shy away from sensitive matters — such as Germany's stand on Iraq and his country's relationship with the U.S.

Approvingly noting that vastly different peoples, cultures and religions lived together peacefully in India, he was pained to see "religiously-motivated violence" flaring up time and again. He was, however, confident that India's secular democracy could solve these problems. Dr. Rau regarded India as a "natural candidate" for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. And he was categorical on his country's opposition to "terrorism in all its forms" and spoke of Germany's support to the draft comprehensive convention on combating terrorism sponsored by India in the U.N. At the same time, he was for fighting the "root causes" of terrorism and tackling the environment in which it flourished.

As regards Iraq, he did not think that war was inevitable while stressing that it could only be the last resort. Germany, had warned against accepting its inevitability, he said while stressing that it could "only be the very last resort". In his view, the point of no return had not been reached in the case of Iraq.

Conceding that there were "irritations" in German-U.S. relations he was sure that this would not do any lasting damage to the trans-Atlantic bond. He was not happy with the talk of "new" and "old" Europe. Those using these terms, according to him, could not be thinking of and certainly not aiming at a new division of Europe.

On globalisation, Dr. Rau cited the views of the Nobel prize winner, Amartya Sen, that the quality of life in a given country could not be gauged from its growth rate or prosperity but rather from the degree of freedom it offers. The "Agenda for Indo-German partnership for 21st Century", he said, had proved its worth as a valuable foundation for cooperation in partnership in a globalised world.

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