Professor Narlikar,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, I would like to welcome you here in the town hall. This Senate reception is in celebration of the induction of Professor Narlikar as the new president of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, known by its acronym, GIGA.

Professor Narlikar, it is an honour for GIGA, the University of Hamburg and our city to have someone of your high calibre and experience as part of our academic community here in Hamburg.

You are the founding director of the well-regarded Centre for Rising Powers, and Reader in International Political Economy at Cambridge. Not only that, you are a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford, wonderful cities both of them.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Professor Narlikar’s academic field is the rise of new world powers, multilateral negotiations and global trade. She has designed coalition strategies for developing countries at the World Trade Organization and created proposals for its reform. She is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals at the World Economic Forum and was also part of the first Warwick Commission on the reform of Multilateral Trade.  

She has received many awards for her academic work and is a member of a variety of international research projects. With these attributes, Professor Narlikar, you are just what we need in Hamburg.

Why? Because GIGA is a leading research institute on four world regions - Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Due to global power shifts, public interest in these areas has grown immensely. The world, it seems, is getting more and more complex almost by the minute, and it is becoming increasingly important to apply the right methodology to try and make sense of it. This is what GIGA does every day.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the world has seen even more major changes. They have included the growing interdependence of economies and societies and the rise of the so called BRICS countries as global powers BRICS, of course, standing for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But we have also seen the rise of terrorism and various new forms of violent conflict. Things have never been easy, but I think we can agree that global volatility has taken on a new quality. All of this has led to a growing need for research and expertise in regional studies.

GIGA provides the expertise and knowledge to understand the views of players outside the Western World, and to estimate the influence of the new, rising powers. This will help to find solutions to major challenges.

Hamburg is proud to be tagged Germany’s gateway to the world”, and as such it offers ideal conditions for GIGA’s research. Close cooperation between the Institute and the Senate of Hamburg as well as the Federal Foreign Office gives GIGA great potential.

GIGA and its predecessor, the German Overseas Institute, have a long tradition of academic research into regional developments. Today, GIGA is an internationally renowned institute cooperating with researchers and organisations worldwide and publishing many important studies. Their relevance extends far beyond the academic community. Decision-makers in politics, business and the media consult the acknowledged experts at GIGA.

Also, since I have the opportunity, let me add a slightly selfish best case scenario here: for me as a politician it is of great value when scientifically advanced work can be distilled into specific points that are accessible for the general public. For that reason, I was particularly pleased to hear that you, Professor Narlikar, intend to step up cooperation between GIGA, other research institutes and politicians.

I think that Hamburg, as a scientific hub, can provide a fantastic environment for this kind of interdisciplinary work. Aside from the University, the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy comes to mind, IFSH being the German acronym. There is the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Max Planck Institute for comparative and international Private Law or the KlimaCampus Hamburg, a centre of excellence for research and education in climate and earth sciences that includes the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. These are all excellent scientific institutions that, I am certain, can contribute much to GIGA’s endeavours as the Institute analyzes the challenges facing its specific focus regions. We are all looking forward to the fruitful connections that can be built here.
Trade politics, one of your own research interests, is, of course, especially close to Hamburg, a city with a long mercantile history that is now a major trading hub for Germany and Europe. We consider ourselves extremely lucky that GIGA now has a president who is experienced in fields of global importance that also vitally affect our own city of Hamburg; I have also heard that it was partly this interesting connection between the city and its merchant history that tickled your intellectual curiosity and lured you away from your long-time home in Cambridge to come here. In Hamburg, the past and present history of international trade, its theory and practice, can be studied side by side, and I am sure you will find it thrilling to work here.

Also, I have been told, it is always a good and consoling thought to mention to newly arrived British citizens, or former UK residents, that His Royal Highness Prince William, the Duke of

Cambridge, has ancestral roots in the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, which is basically just around the corner. So one could say we are pretty much like Cambridge, just with twice as many students. You may well feel completely at home.

Cities and metropolitan areas like ours are becoming increasingly important in political terms and face economic and social challenges. They need to provide a good environment for both residents and entrepreneurs, and promote innovation. This includes education, affordable housing, public transport, a stable labour market and sustainable energy sources. Everywhere in the world people are migrating towards the cities, and we are challenged to create good places of arrival for those who come looking for a better life. At the same time, trading cities like Hamburg need to create global networks in order to cater for their economic needs and defend their interests.

Population growth, housing shortages and unemployment are global challenges. They do exist in Hamburg too, although they differ from those, for example, in India. This is one of the reasons why the kind of research undertaken at GIGA is so important for the whole world.

The Institute’s experts study different regions of the world and I am very pleased that Professor Narlikar will be giving a lecture about India after my speech. The country is one of her fields of interest, not only because it is one of the rising BRICS countries, but also because she was born there and earned both her B.A. and M.A. degrees in History and International Relations at Indian universities, before moving to England to achieve even higher academic laurels.

As a preface to Professor Narlikar’s lecture, allow me to talk briefly about the relations between Hamburg and India.

These relations go way back to the 16th century and India’s importance as a trading partner and port customer grew rapidly. In 1954 the Indian Consulate General opened in Hamburg and has maintained good relationships with political and business circles ever since. I am very pleased that the Consul General is among our guests today.

The relations between Hamburg and India have always been close and they are growing even closer. Our city recognizes the country’s significance and potential. This is demonstrated, for instance, by the fact that in 2011 the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg opened a representative office in Mumbai. I have had the pleasure to visit Mumbai myself in 2012.

More than 400 Hamburg companies do business with India, which was ranked tenth among the trading partners of the Port of Hamburg last year, and there are many institutions and organizations in Hamburg whose contacts with India concern economic matters or scientific cooperation and exchange programmes. Another highlight is the biennial India Week, which will take place for the sixth time in November this year, with events celebrating culture, politics, society, business and science. Some 20,000 people visited the 50 events held in 2013.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
as you see, Hamburg has many different connections with India, and with other regions in the world, which offer the experts at GIGA many topics for research into global changes and challenges.

Professor Narlikar, welcome here in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg! I am sure that you will help to strengthen the international standing of the GIGA, and the whole academic community of Hamburg will benefit from your work. I do hope you will soon feel at home in this likeable city.

I am looking forward to what GIGA will achieve under the leadership of Professor Narlikar, to whom I should now like to give the floor.

Thank you very much.

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.