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Merkel considered India a multicultural powerhouse

- WALTER J. LINDNER

A 16-YEAR-LONG ERA is coming to an end. If you look at world leaders whose tenures coincided with Angela Merkel’s chancellorship in Germany, you will see among them four American presidents, four French presidents and two Indian prime ministers. Merkel took charge four years after the 9/11 attacks. She has often been at the helm of crisis management, and she changed the prevailing political landscape.

The Indo-German relationship has become much stronger in her time. It is partly because of her interest, and mostly because of India emerging as a power. She has always believed in India as a country and as a multicultural powerhouse of 1.4 billion people. She has said several times that she has a lot of respect for India because the people, the administration, the languages, the states, the religions and the cultural influences are all so different, and that running such a country takes a lot of skill. It is one of the things she admires about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As she often says, “It is so difficult to be in his shoes.”

Ten years ago, we started the biennial Indo-German consultation, which is very helpful because every two years you can set an agenda. We do not have it with many countries. It was her decision to do it.