German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be accompanied by a large and diverse business delegation, including about a dozen CEOs from companies such as Siemens and SAP, during his visit to New Delhi and Bengaluru on February 25-26, German Ambassador to India Phillip Ackermann has said.

Trade and investment would be one of the top agenda items for Scholz, who will hold interactions with businesses from both countries together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ackermann said at a media briefing on Wednesday, adding that German businesses were eager to see the finalisation of the free trade agreement between India and the European Union.

Bilateral trade ties

“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,” he said.

However, the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine, especially in the light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on Tuesday (where he gave nuclear warnings to the West), and issues related to China, too, would be taken up in the discussions between the leaders, Ackermann said.

Climate change, clean energy, migration of skilled manpower and global challenges will the other areas of discussion.

The German Ambassador said the international environment was very difficult and India was an influential and valuable partner in discussing the current issues, but there did not seem to be any scope for negotiations at the moment as Putin did not want it. “We would like to see an Indian engagement at some stage after a while. India is a very appropriate candidate at some stage to, maybe, come up with some solution. But I do not think this is time for it,” he said.

On Russian oil

On India’s decision to continue buying oil from Russia, Ackermann said, “India buying oil from Russia is none of our business basically. That’s something the Indian government decides”.

He added that there was no scope for withdrawing economic sanctions against Russia, especially after Putin’s speech on Tuesday.

On whether short seller Hindenburg’s report on Adani Group would affect German investments in India, the Ambassador said that his country assessed the development only from an observer’s point of view. He added that a majority of over 2,000 German businesses in India were doing very good business.

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