Germany still hopes to win IAF fighter deal: Missfelder

[thestringshredder]

Germany today said it is still hopeful of India giving in to the Eurofighter jet over the French Rafael and that it is not giving up in trying to convince the Indian government of why the Eurofighter would be a better deal for India. This was stated by Mr Philipp Missfelder, a member of the German Bundestag and the foreign policy spokesperson for the Fraction of the Christian Democrats, in an exclusive interview to The Statesman.

Last year, Eurofighter lost out to Rafael for India’s $10 billion MMRCA contract. But Mr Missfelder said even though the French offer does exist and that France is a reliable country, “the problems in the details are evident”. He also said the industry sector in France has “massive problems”.

He confessed that Germany is “very worried about the situation in Afghanistan. Mr Karzai is ruling Kabul and not the whole of Afghanistan”. Taking a highly critical view of Pakistan’s role in the regional politics, Mr. Missfelder said one of the goals of going to Afghanistan was to find Osama bin Laden who was finally found in Pakistan. He candidly admitted that a larger role for Pakistan in Afghanistan in a post 2014 scenario “could cause a bigger challenge”.
Mr Missfelder said he is not in favour of a bipolar world and a multi-polar world makes more sense. “The currency debates sometimes make us think that this is a G2 world,” he said with reference to the domination of the Dollar and the Yen in the world markets and said this “is not good for us”.

With reference to China’s recent aggression in the South China Sea and the conflict with Japan over the Senkaku islands, Mr Missfelder feels that “China is testing the limits.” He also said the growing nationalism in China is not a good sign and like many other countries, China, too, might be to blame its domestic problems on someone outside.

Germany is also headed to elections in September this year with Chancellor Merkel’s party expected to return to power with a thin majority, according to polls. The issue of Turkey becoming a member of the European Union has been dragging its feet for a while now and some have said Chancellor Merkel wanted to keep the Turkey question out of the debate to avoid any domestic repercussions. However, Mr Missfelder said said Germany needs Turkey as a “strategic partner”.

Mr Missfelder said India and Germany share a good bilateral relationship and he hopes that this relationship would expand in the future.

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