New Delhi: Commenting on India’s stand on the Ukraine crisis so far, German Ambassador to India Walter J. Lindner in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat said that every country has its own dependencies and way of judging things. “Every country has its history, neighborhood and dependencies and own way of judging things," he said.
Lindner also says that it was important for Germany to make it clear to the international community not to let Russin President Vladimir Putin get away with the invasion of Ukraine and to convey the message that if a clear signal to Russia to stop the invasion is not sent, then it will cause severe damage to everyone.
"From the very beginning, we didn’t criticize India’s stand on voting. We would have been happy if there would have been harsher criticism of the Russian invasion but we know the dependency. This has by no means harmed the India-German relationships. For us, it was important to make clear to everyone (the international community) that we let Putin not get away with this. It was more important for us to say that if we don’t send out a clear signal to the Russians to ‘stop’, then this will be a big damage for everyone”, said Lindner.
When asked about Germany’s decision of not inviting India to the upcoming G7 summit until a few weeks ago, given the country’s reluctance to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and then the shift in its decision to court India in G7, Lindner said, “We were always convinced that India has to be there in Germany for the G7 leader's summit in June because it’s quite some years now that India is participating as the guest in the G7."
"I think a country with 1.3 billion people and with economic importance, India always had to be there. We were never reluctant to invite India and wanted to wait until we invite officially," he added. Lindner said that during the summit, the Ukraine issue will be high on the agenda because it’s the dominant topic in all the international conferences.
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“Apart from that, the post-Covid situation, how do we deal with the future pandemic situation, set up a green economy, especially after the Covid and reconstruction of Ukraine one day. We need to save the planet and need to do something to curtail global warming. This will be the G7’s top priority and also the bilateral relationship, and green economy projects between India and Germany will be high on the agenda. There will be other issues like the international fight against terrorism”, he said.
Germany which currently holds the rotating G-7 presidency will also welcome the leaders of Indonesia, South Africa, and Senegal to the G7 leader's summit in the Bavarian Alps from June 26 to June 28 this year. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Berlin last month, as a special guest to the G7 summit, to promote a broader global alliance against Russia.
Lindner pointed out that India is very much visible in the international scenario. India is invited to G7 and then to the Munich Security conference, international conferences on Indo-Pacific. In the last few decades, India has got very good diplomats in the United Nation. “I would say, no global challenge can be solved without India”, Lindner said.
