New Delhi [India], October 8 : German Ambassador to India, stressed on the need to increase the representation fo women in diplomacy, while praising the "lively" and "vibrant" female community in the Indian Foreign Service.
The envoy participated at the 'Diversity in Diplomacy' event, which saw the participation of several female ambassadors to discuss improving the representation of women and minorities in diplomatic roles.
Netherlands Ambassador to India, Marisa Gerards; Ambassador of Indonesia to India, Ina Hagniningtyas Krisnamurthi and Director of Centre for Social Research, Ranjana Kumari were the panelists at the event.
Ahead of the event, Ackermann told ANI, "We'll sit down with several female ambassadors and we will discuss how to better include women and minorities in diplomacy. I think we can learn a lot from many other countries. Germany is trying hard to get more women to be more inclusive in its foreign policy."
He also acknowledged the progress made by India in this regard, stating, "When you look, for example, India has had a very interesting group of female ambassadors at the highest ranking among them. Several of them have been ambassadors to Germany also. There is a very lively and extremely vibrant female community in the Indian foreign service."
The German Ambassador emphasised that this is a pivotal moment for both nations to collaborate and learn from each other to enhance gender equality in diplomacy.
Notably, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to visit India at the end of October for significant intergovernmental consultations.
The visit will coincide with the Asia Pacific conference of German business, bringing along eight ministers and a host of high-ranking German CEOs to discuss business opportunities in India and Asia.
Ackermann shared insights about the upcoming event during an interview, emphasising its importance.
"What we are going to have is a kind of a German Mahotsav. At the end of October, we will have the intergovernmental consultations where the Chancellor and 8 ministers will travel to Delhi. We have at the same time the Asia Pacific conference of the German Business. We will have a lot of very high-ranking German CEOs coming to Delhi in order to discuss German business in India and Asia," he stated.
Notably, in May 2022, PM Modi visited Berlin as part of the 6th Indo-German Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC). During their talks, the two heads of government acknowledged the importance of digital transformation as a key driver for technological, economic and societal change.
In addition, Modi and Scholz signed a Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) establishing a Green and Sustainable Development Partnership. With this partnership, Germany intends to strengthen its financial and technical cooperation with India by investing at least 10 billion Euros until 2030.
Germany and India's diplomatic relations have now existed for more than seven decades. One of its key pillars is its shared interest in strengthening multilateral cooperation and promoting a sustainable digital economy.
Chancellor Scholz visited India in February 2023 leading a high-level business delegation comprising CEOs of major German companies. Prime Minister Modi and Chancellor jointly addressed a Business Round table comprising top industry leaders from both sides.
The visit saw the release of a common paper titled "India- Germany Vision to Enhance Cooperation in Innovation and Technology" by both sides. Scholz was in New Delhi for the G20 summit as well which was hosted by India in September.