Lufthansa is a good way to fly to Berlin, provided you can connect at Munich. But, both ways, in and out, we had to do a 100 metre dash, fingers crossed. Negotiating long queues for security and immigration required commando skills. And the Germans are very serious about both currently. Germany’s mainstream political parties are embroiled in post-local election traumas, being overwhelmed by the new nationalist and anti-immigrant party, Alternative for Germany. Given such turmoil within, will the country lose its political and economic clout in Europe to France? Or will it become ‘great’ again? Wait for 2019.
Berlin is the venue for our trialogue between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, never a convivial meeting. Indians don’t trust the Pakistanis, nor do the Afghans, and vice versa. Pakistan feels Afghanistan and India will gang up to shake hands across the Durand Line and eat into its strategic...
