PM, German Chancellor discuss terrorism, situation in Af-Pak

New Delhi (PTI) Terrorism in the region and
security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan were among the
host of issues discussed during first Indo-German Inter-
governmental meeting here on Tuesday with Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh asserting that terrorism will have to
be fought "on all fronts and not selectively".
Led by Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who
arrived here this morning, the cabinet meetings between the
two sides saw wide-ranging talks on bilateral, regional and
international issues such as cooperation in the strategic
areas of defence and security, trade and UN Security Council
reforms.
"We discussed the developments in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Terrorism is a serious challenge which will have
to be fought on all fronts and not selectively," Singh told a
joint press conference with Merkel.
"India and Germany have the same goal in Afghanistan,
as an independent country with security in its hands.
Afghanistan should develop an independent security
architecture," Merkel said.
She said Germany will be hosting the next conference
on Afghanistan by the end of the year in which the issue of
reconciliation process will be discussed in detail.
After the talks, India and Germany also inked four
pacts to expand their cooperation in areas relating to
education, research and high-tech areas like nuclear physics.
Asked about nuclear energy safety norms, Singh said
every effort would be made to ensure that all safety norms in
the generation and utilisation of nuclear energy are "world
class".
"Today our nuclear energy is three per cent of our
total energy generation. Our capacity is less than 5,000 MW.
We want to raise it to 20,000 MW by the year 2020," he said.
He said if India has to meet the emission targets, the
country will have to have a combination of nuclear energy and
renewable energy sources.
Stressing the need for "broad-based" mix of nuclear
energy and other sources of energy, Merkel said for many years
Germany also had mix of both sources of energy and talked
about power plants being built in India with the German help.
On UNSC reforms, Singh said both India and Germany
were of the opinion that the body should reflect the
contemporary reality of the world and were hopeful of a
positive result.
"Germany and India are members of G4. We have been
arguing for a long time that the global system needs to be
brought up to date in tune with contemporary realities..The
new realities of the global scene have to be taken into
account in looking at reform of the global structures of
governance," Singh said.
On her part, Merkel said Germany and India will work
together for getting a permanent seat in the UN Security
Council and stressed on "speeding up the process of the UN
reforms". Both Germany and India are currently non-permanent
seats in the UN Security Council.