AHMEDABAD: India and Germany are looking to boost defence industry cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after hosting Chancellor Friedrich Merz in his home state of Gujarat. 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.
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 characterised 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. — AFP
