German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on a two-day official visit to India, is scheduled to discuss a range of bilateral and geo-political issues with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday.
These include matters related to two-way trade and investment, skilled manpower migration, defence deals, climate change, clean energy cooperation, the continuing Russia-Ukraine war and China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region, according to officials tracking the matter.
Scholz, who is visiting India for the first time since he became Chancellor in December 2021, will also meet businesses and call on President Droupadi Murmu. He will visit Bengaluru on Sunday where he is expected to visit a few companies, including German IT Company SAP’s establishment, and hold discussions with startups and innovators.
The German Chancellor is accompanied by a large business delegation, which includes a dozen CEOs and top officials. The companies represented are a mix of small, medium and large, such as SAP and Siemens, sources said.
Common conccerns
Germany is one of the largest trading partners of India in the EU, with bilateral trade of $30 billion almost equally balanced between the two countries.
“Our bilateral trade is $30 billion now but it should be five times as big…I would say that German businesses are really wanting the FTA between India and the EU as it will ease up our business in a substantive way and will lead to huge new amounts of FDI…India is basically the only comfortable market when you compare to China,” said German Ambassador to India Philipp Ackermann in a recent interaction with the media.
Scholz, whose visit to India coincides with the completion of one year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is also expected to discuss the consequences of the war and the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to negotiate to bring the conflict to an end.
The need to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region is also on the agenda and is an issue of concern for both countries.