Jaishankar, German Foreign Minister discuss counter-terrorism, climate change, multilateralism

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, in Berlin and discussed a range of global and bilateral issues, including climate change, counter-terrorism, multilateralism, connectivity, besides sharing their perspectives on the situation in Afghanistan and the Gulf.

In his remarks at a press interaction with Maas in Berlin after the meeting, Jaishankar said that they also discussed of working together in the Alliance for Multilateralism - a Franco-German initiative that was launched during the ongoing 74th UN General Assembly last year.

"I conveyed our strong support to the Minister. And I want to underline that in India we are very proud of our traditions and confident of our future, and we do believe that that future is an internationalist future," Jaishankar said.

"We appreciate this initiative, the Alliance for Multilateralism, because today multilateralism is under threat, under stress I would say, from both nationalism and mercantilism, and we believe in the centrality of the United Nations, in the relevance of the WTO to international trade, and we believe multilateralism should be recognized, it should be preserved, it should be protected," he added.

The two leaders deliberated upon as to how to expedite the reforms of the United Nations including the UN Security Council.

"It is a subject on which India and Germany have worked together for some years. I was very gratified to hear from the minister the support for two initiatives that India has taken, multilateral initiatives, the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition For Disaster Resilient Infrastructure," Jaishankar said.