Strong bonds with India: Germany's ambassador Thomas Matussek

The Delhi posting is not new for Thomas Matussek as he served as press counsellor at the German Embassy between 1983 and 1986. During his tenure at the UN, he also worked closely with his counterparts from India, Brazil and Japan to get a reform of the UN Security Council.

"On the one hand I am very excited to be here," says Matussek. "On the other hand, I think it is my job to explore the still open spaces which exist in our bilateral relationship." He says this relationship is very good "but in some areas it has so far lacked a little bit of substance. For instance, there is much more to do in the fields of business and economic cooperation. There is a lot to do in the area of security cooperation; after all, we face the same common enemy."

The ambassador stresses that India and Germany share the same values. "I think if you look around the world, India is a vivid democracy, an anchor of stability in a very unruly neighborhood and I think together we can do a lot of things to improve stability peace and prosperity in the world."

Defense cooperation

The envoy believes the future scope of defense cooperation between both countries is immense.

"In the common fight against terrorism, we have made offers of closer intelligence sharing, of training programmes for anti-terrorism experts." Another area is armament cooperation. "We do not regard India as a client but as a true security partner and that is why we are prepared to offer armaments systems to India which we don't share with anyone and we envisage full technology transfer.

"We forego end-user monitoring agreements because we believe in the next 10-20 years, Europe and India should really fight side by side in meeting the great security challenges of our planet."

Such agreements are a precondition for defense deals imposed by many countries including the United States.

Envoy's wife loves Indian music and dance

The envoy's wife Ulla is a Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi dancer. Both are classical Indian dance forms. And she is an accomplished musician. Ulla Matussek says this time around she wants to learn more about the Indian singing traditions, too:

"I really would like to learn a little bit about the Indian way of singing especially Carnatic singing. I hope to meet somebody who could teach me because it is quite different from our approach. But it is very interesting and I would love to do that."

Ambassador Mattusek takes a long-term perspective on Indo-German relations. "Geographically we are far apart but the roots of our relationship go back to the 18th century. We build on that relationship continuously and I see a very bright future."

At this stage, Matussek sees his role in making the German leadership aware of the rapid changes taking place in India these days.

Author: Murali Krishnan (New Delhi)
Editor: Grahame Lucas