George Augustine Thundiparambil is a writer and translator dividing his time between India and Germany. He has written a historical novel in English titled Maya and has published many blogs and articles on faith and religion in several Internet forums. He is a partner of Geckolingua Translations International based in Freiburg, Germany.

* Germany is the most important country in the EU. Will its reaction to the war set precedents that the entire EU is likely to follow?

* Germany has made what appears to be a major U-turn. How much of this is because the new Chancellor Sholz wants to get out from under the shadow of Merkel? 

* Is this a strategic pivot or a knee-jerk response? Will all this result in slower growth?

* Nordstream 2 has been put on hold

* Defense spend to go up to the desired NATO level 2% of the budget

* $100b funds for the armed forces

* 2 LNG terminals on the north sea coast to reduce dependence on Russian gas

* Sending weapons to ukraine (not 5000 helmets)

* Buying F-35 US planes

* Will there be re-thinking on clean energy? What about nuclear and coal? 80% to be coming from clean energy by 2030?

* But Germany is STILL buying gas and oil from Russia. As is much of the EU. That doesn’t worry the US, but India buying Russian oil is a problem? Why the double stds?

* Re-arming germany? Is that wise? Does the country become a potential war monger? How will the rest of Europe view this, in particular France?

* A fallout from the war has been the normalization of racism, eg. people said bluntly that blue eyed, blond Europeans mustn’t suffer. (Oh, it’s ok if blacks/browns do?)

* India values its relationships with Germany and France. Will there be any negative fallout from all this war hysteria?

George has recently started a YouTube channel for his video podcasts titled Faith for Adults.

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