BIG – Brazil, India, and Germany – and the Future of Global Governance: Prospects for Trilateral Cooperation

Brazil, India, and Germany are regional powers with wide influence in their regional environments, and they are also mayor players in the global domain, as demonstrated by their participation in the G20 and the G8+5. By joining forces they can have an impact on international policy issues and on the future shape of global governance.

In the so-called G4, Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan support each other’s bids for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. In a joint press statement (24 September 2014) after a meeting on the margins of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly "the G4 Ministers underscored their continuous commitment to a Security Council reform reflective of the geopolitical realities of the 21st century."

The cooperation within the G4 indicates that Brazil, India, and Germany accredit each other equal status in the international system. They claim to be part of the same club. Moreover, in its foreign policy each country grants specific prominence to the other two. India and Brazil cooperate within both the BRICS and the IBSA forum. Germany has strategic partnerships with Brazil and with India. In 2015 official government-to-government consultations (including ministers from both countries) will be held between Germany and Brazil for the first time. Regular (every two years) government consultations with India started in 2011. Brazil was the partner country of international computer fair CEBIT in Hannover in 2012, and India is the partner country of the Hannover industrial fair (Hannover Messe) in 2015. If we look at the bilateral cooperation agreements between Germany and Brazil and Germany and India, we see that they are quite similar with regard to reach and content, covering trade, technological cooperation, scientific exchange, climate change, cyber policy, security cooperation, etc.

What are the perspectives for cooperation between Brazil, India, and Germany with regard to the central issues of global governance? How do they perceive "the geopolitical realities of the 21st century”? Where do their strategies and objectives converge, where do they diverge? This forum will take stock of different areas of global governance (trade, financial markets, security, the mitigation of climate change), bringing together practitioners and scientists. The panelists will discuss the positions and strategies of the three countries and delineate possible areas of trilateral cooperation.

Welcome and Discussant: Professor Detlef Nolte is Director of the GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies.

Speakers: Professor Amrita Narlikar, speaking on India, is the president of the GIGA.

Professor Lourdes Sola, speaking on Brazil, is on the Executive Board of the Center for Public Policy Research, University of São Paulo.

Ralf Beste, speaking on Germany, is Deputy Head for Policy Planning at the German Federal Foreign Office.

Moderation: Professor Laurence Whitehead is a Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.