Scholz begins India trip
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz begins a three-day visit to India today.
Scholz and several senior German cabinet ministers will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a wide range of bilateral strategic topics such as bilateral trade, defense and energy. Tomorrow, Scholz and Modi will also preside over the seventh Intergovernmental Consultations (IGC), a series of meetings between peer ministers of the two countries.
Germany is India’s largest trading partner in the European Union, and trade between the two nations has expanded to a valuation of tens of billions of dollars in recent years. However, defense and energy are relatively new areas of cooperation between Germany and India, driven in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and by geopolitical competition between India and China.
Last year, German and Indian companies partnered on a deal to build six stealth diesel-electric submarines, an area of expertise for Germany which India sees as vital for maintaining security along the critical maritime trade routes it shares with China. Expect Germany to seek economic and energy benefits from these deliberations with populous and resource-rich India, as Germany remains in a worker shortage and recession, while defense will be of particular interest to India.