Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel will deliver the inaugural Manmohan Singh Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on February 26. The lecture will be titled “Germany and India in Times of Global Change.”The delivery of the lecture will be followed by a conversation between Merkel and Ambassador Shivshankar Menon who served as the National Security Adviser under late PM Singh.The programme details were confirmed on Thursday by The Manmohan Singh Trust and family sources.The Tribune was the first to break the news that the late Prime Minister’s family had invited Merkel for the first lecture in his memory. The invitation was sent last year and a formal acceptance was awaited.“A lot of thought went into the decision behind finalising the dignitary to deliver the inaugural memorial lecture. Former German Chancellor Merkel was found to be the most suitable. A request was sent to assess her convenience and availability. The memorial event has now been finalised,” sources familiar with the development told The Tribune today.Merkel served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold that office and the second longest-serving Chancellor in German history. In 2022, she accepted the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award saying the prize was in honour of the countless people who lent a hand when large numbers of refugees arrived in Europe in 2015 and 2016.