'India's economic, strategic potential should be tapped by EU'

New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) India has enormous global economic, political and strategic potential which must be harnessed by the European Union (EU) through improved trade and political and technological cooperation, said a parliamentarian from Germany.

Andreas Schockenhoff, member of the German Parliament, highlighting the "political governance of European market and currency and increased cooperation and integration of military capability as the two pillars of European reforms", said that Europe needs its own strong and credible defence and security policy.

"Given the financial constraint across the Eurozone, the ability to take effective action in the realm of security policy can only be guaranteed through closer military cooperation and integration," said Schockenhoff, according to a Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) statement Wednesday.

He was delivering a talk on the 'Future Foreign Policy and Strategic Security Challenges for Germany and Europe' at the IDSA here.

He said the current Euro crisis "is not just a currency crisis, but also a debt crisis of national budgets. There is one market, one currency but many fiscal and social policies and different forms of public spending. The big challenge is to achieve economic and political integration in Europe," according to the statement.

Schockenhoff, who is deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU- Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag for Foreign Affairs, Affairs of the European Union and Defence Policy, said the EU "represents 40 per cent of global trade, 20 percent of global production and by the end of this century, will represent less than 5 per cent of the global population. Therefore, more political integration is a question of political and societal survival."

He said the "EU remains committed to the Syria's struggle for freedom, democracy and dignity, he stated, adding that Russia and China must end their support for the Syrian dictatorial regime and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must condemn and isolate the regime".

Schockenhoff stressed the need "to make Iran feel the impact of stringent sanctions to initiate effective negotiations".

Earlier, Distinguished Fellow, IDSA, and chair for the discussion, Lt. General (Retd.) Satish Nambiar, said the EU "is classical model on good management of its borders and India can learn from it".