India, Germany to strengthen bilateral ties, increase investments: German Vice Chancellor

Germany's Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck on Thursday said India and Germany want to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and increase investments and collaboration among companies. He arrived on a three-day visit to India on Thursday.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Indo-German Business Forum here, Habeck also said China is Germany's biggest trading partner and a lot of German and European companies have invested in that country.

"It is a huge market and this goes the same for India and for the US for example. On the other hand we see that being dependent on only one market could be a risk and even more so if we see that economic issues are not politically neutral, that interests are interwoven in the economic relations," he said.

He further said "we can't decouple from China" but de-risking and diversification is of highest importance.

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Diversification, he said means that other partnerships, the Indo-German partnership and other ones as well, become more and more important.

"My understanding also from the talks ahead with the Indian partners is, that goes the same for India. So there is a mutual interest from the German side and the Indian side to strengthen our cooperation and bringing more companies together, bringing more investments, creating a common trade sphere also as an answer that we are not becoming too dependent on only one country and from the German side that is also China," he said.

He further said from the European side, the Russian aggression on Ukraine is unprecedented and it has destroyed the European peace order built after the second World War.

"I know that Europe is a little bit away from Asia of course, but on the other hand this is of such importance that I urge all democracies worldwide to be clear in language and political position that this is not acceptable," Habeck said.

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Referring to the price cap imposed on purchase of Russian crude oil, he urged countries "not to use the sanctions system to give credit, more money to Russia that they can fuel their war in Ukraine".

To a question regarding the situation in Manipur, Habeck said "this is not on the table for me".

He said he would be discussing economic matters during his meetings with the Indian side, besides the energy matters regarding sanctions and renewable energy.

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