The reform of international monetary institutions and the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, the Korean peninsula and Iran can be expected to figure in the talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week.
Prime Minister Singh will visit Berlin on December 11, the day after he participates in the annual European Union (EU) - India summit at Brussels in Belgium. He will call on the new German President, Christian Wulff, during his brief stay in the German capital on his way back home.
Speaking to journalists, Germany’s ambassador to India Thomas Matussek said civil and defence trade and global and regional security issues, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be the highlights of the talks between the Indian and German leaders.
Germany and India will become non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term starting 1 January 2011. Together with Brazil and Japan, they are known as the Group of Four (G-4), which is making efforts to become permanent members of the UNSC.
Mr Matussek said the proposed troop withdrawals from Afghanistan should be “conditions-based, not calendar-driven.” About Pakistan, he said democratic institutions there needed to be strengthened to contribute to stability. He expressed concern that poverty in Pakistan was pushing parents there to send their kids to Madrasas (Islamist seminaries). The seminaries are widely believed to be breeding grounds for terrorists.