Even before the coronavirus forced the world into a standstill, the international order had been in a state of upheaval. Old certainties are increasingly being eroded. A new dualism seems to be emerging from the multipolar world that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Corona-crisis has further accelerated this process.

In cooperation with the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and the Observer Resarch Foundation (ORF), the India office has organized a virtual roundtable in form of a webinar, which was attended by high-ranking representatives from German and Indian politics, such as the German MPs Christian Hirte and Prof. Dr. Mario Voigt, member of the state assembly of Thuringia, and the German Ambassador to India, H.E. Walter Lindner. On the Indian side, the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Lok Sabha, Shri Jayant Sinha (BJP) and Member of Parliament Shri Manish Tewari (Congress Party) took part.

No international order is eternal. Although there is disagreement about whether the old world order should be preserved or needs to be replaced by something new, it is clear that India and Germany respectively Europe should play a prominent role on the world stage, and preferably in tandem with each other.

There is much potential in this cooperation, and it can well go beyond a mere free trade agreement. Both the USA and China are withdrawing as partners for Europe and India for different reasons. At least in Europe, a return to self-sufficiency and national egoism is unthinkable - the individual states are too weak to exert any international influence on their own.

The future of the international world order after Covid-19 requires India and Europe to reposition themselves against this background. The proposals range from a joint alliance, a "third pole" in the brewing conflict between China and the USA, to an alliance of middle powers to prevent a further polarization of the world into new blocs. In particular, the preservation of free world trade is a vital interest of both India and the Europeans.