Germany announced on Monday (2 May) that it seeks to strengthen its bilateral ties with India in support of the EU’s efforts to relaunch its relationship with New Delhi and increase cooperation with the presumed “like-minded” state.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz in Berlin for consultations between the two governments and to sign a partnership agreement aimed at supporting India in its Green transition.
“India is a key partner for Germany in Asia in economic, security and climate policy terms,” Scholz said in a press statement following the consultation.
While the sixth government consultations were focusing on climate protection and sustainability – with Germany pledging €10 billion in development aid in the coming ten years – the talks were overshadowed by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
“We agree that borders must not be moved by force and that the inviolability of borders and the integrity and sovereignty of nations must be beyond question,” Scholz stressed.
Modi added: “We are democratic states, India and Germany, and as a result, we share a whole set of common values,” affirming their mutual commitment to the rule of law as a further example. Scholz stressed that these values would “unite us.”
The ongoing human rights violations in India were not addressed during the press statements, which did not allow for questions by journalists.
To boost cooperation between democracies on “global questions,” Scholz also announced that India will join the G7 talks in June as an observer state.
Indian reluctance in Ukraine
However, India has so far avoided taking a clear stance on Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. When 141 states condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a resolution at the UN General Assembly in early March, India – along with China – was one of only 35 states that abstained from voting.
In some areas, India might also be capitalising on the war in Ukraine. While the EU is currently working on an oil embargo against Russia in its sixth sanctions package, Indian refiners are negotiating oil imports that provide for millions of additional barrels of oil.
According to calculations by Reuters, India has already imported twice as much crude oil from Russia since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February than in the whole year of 2021.
Especially when it comes to the issue of oil sanctions, India therefore “plays an important role,” emphasised the chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign policy committee, Michael Roth, on Twitter. “If oil prices rise and other countries buy more, then little is gained,” he added.
India is largely dependent on Russian imports, particularly in agricultural products such as fertilisers. Most of its weapons imports also come from Russia.
Although the share of Russian arms imports fell from 69% between 2012 and 2017 to 45% between 2017 and 2021, Russian weaponry remains dominant in many areas.
In 2018, India signed a €5.5 billion contract with Russia for the delivery of surface-to-air missile systems of the type S-400. The first tranche was delivered in November 2021.
While the US is boosting its efforts to lessen India’s dependency on Russian weapons imports, Germany is currently not planning on following suit. The German weapons export law, which is set to be updated this summer, could stand in the way of exporting weapons to India, which is still plagued by human rights violations.
Indian market
The EU and Germany are looking to increase trade relations with India in a bid to reduce the country’s dependence on both Russian and Chinese imports.
“India currently has the highest growth rate compared to other leading economies and we are confident that India will become an important pillar of the global recovery,” Modi said.
India’s relevance in international trade has increased significantly in recent years. In 2021 alone, India’s external trade increased by around 50%. Germany is India’s biggest trading partner in the EU and its sixth biggest on the globe: India imported goods worth approximately €14 billion from Germany in 2021.
However, India currently only ranks as Germany’s 23rd biggest export market, which is why Germany and the EU are pushing to conclude a comprehensive free trade agreement as India has a “high growth potential and an impressive capacity for innovation,” Scholz said.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
