INDIA and Germany are looking to boost defence industry cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday after hosting Chancellor Friedrich Merz in his home state of Gujarat. Merz said Berlin also wants a closer security partnership with New Delhi, including deeper “cooperation between our defence industries” to cut India’s traditional dependence on Russia for military hardware.
Merz began his two-day India visit — his first to Asia since taking office in May — two weeks ahead of an EU-India summit and as India and the European bloc are working on a free trade agreement. Both countries announced several agreements and joint declarations after the leaders’ meeting with an aim to boost their $50 billion trade. The announcements included strengthening defence industry cooperation and on semiconductors and critical minerals.
The two countries “are working together on secure, trusted, and resilient supply chains and our MoUs on these issues will strengthen our partnership”, Modi said. “Closer cooperation in security and defence shows mutual trust and shared views,” Modi added. “We will work on a roadmap to increase defence industrial cooperation, which will open new opportunities for co-development and co-production.”
The meeting between the Indian and German leaders comes at a time when both are facing economic and security challenges from the world’s two biggest economies, China and the United States. Merz said Berlin was “committed to an international order in which we can live freely and securely, because the world is currently undergoing a process of realignment”.
“It is increasingly characterized by great power politics and thinking in terms of spheres of influence, which is why we must join forces to weather these rough winds,” he added. “That is why we also want to move closer together in terms of security policy, such as conducting joint exercises between our air forces and navies for security in the Indo-Pacific.”
AFP
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